In a paper published elsewhere (Jimenez Gomez et al. 1997), we compared res
earch carried out on students' conceptions of force in the decade 1975-85 w
ith later research in the period 1985-95. Only a slight progression was fou
nd in the results offered by different authors.
In this contribution we analyse the research objectives of selected investi
gations into students' conceptions of force, their methodological character
istics and their most widely used theoretical foundations, in an attempt to
explain the lack of progress made in this research line. Some suggestions
are made which may help the science teaching profession to understand stude
nts' conceptions better.