ABSTRACT
According to the research on children’s alternative ideas (or misconceptions) about scientific phenomena, these ideas are not only ubiquitous and pervasive, but also persistent. The same ideas have been identified in subjects of different ages and with different science instruction. For instance, several studies (e.g., Séré, 1985; Stavy, 1988) have shown that students’ ideas about gases, and more specifically about air and its properties, are relatively persistent, and contradictory to those maintained by scientific theories.
