Metaphorical understandings and scientific ideas

This study looks at the ideas which children have of the particulate model of matter, at the time they start formal science in school. Pupils aged about eleven in three European countries‐‐Greece, Portugal and the UK‐‐were studied using word association tests. In the UK and Portugal the children had received no teaching of the particulate model; in Greece the pupils had received one year of introductory science, containing some teaching of the particulate model. Key words associated with the particulate model were investigated as free associations. In Portugal and the UK there was little or no evidence of particulate ideas in the pupils’ responses. In the Greek data particulate ideas were more in evidence. There were other clear differences in the data from the three countries. Educational and research implications of the findings are discussed.