THE NEED FOR CHANGE IN ELEMENTARY-SCHOOL TEACHER-TRAINING - THE CASE OF THE ENERGY CONCEPT AS AN EXAMPLE

Do students in pre-service training programmes as elementary school te achers hold the correct scientific views, which will eventually allow them to plan and implement instructional strategies which, in turn, wi ll lead their future pupils to achieve a scientific concept of energy? The results of a cross-college age study dealing with this issue is d iscussed in this paper. The energy conceptions of the students were an alysed by means of a two-part written questionnaire, presented to them during the first week of the second semester. The most important find ings of this study can be summarized as follows; students in pre-servi ce training as elementary teachers: (1) hold a number of alternative c onceptual frameworks when describing physical situations, rather than the accepted scientific concept; (2) mostly think that energy is a con crete entity; (3) mostly do not accept the idea of energy conservation ; (4) mostly do not accept the idea of energy degradation; (5) are amb iguous in their recognition of different types of energy; and (6) most ly confuse the concepts of energy and force.