THE PARTICULATE NATURE OF MATTER IN SCIENCE-EDUCATION AND IN SCIENCE

This article addresses ideas about the particulate nature of matter th at are considered to be correct or acceptable in science education and studies of children's misconceptions. It argues that science teachers and educators use educational as well as scientific criteria for corr ectness, and that these criteria do not always coincide. Relations bet ween the particulate nature of matter in science and science education are analyzed in an attempt to make more intelligible children's incli nation to attribute all kinds of macroscopic properties to particles.