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Children's Ideas About Weather: A Review of the Literature
Author(s) -
Henriques Laura
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
school science and mathematics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.135
H-Index - 2
eISSN - 1949-8594
pISSN - 0036-6803
DOI - 10.1111/j.1949-8594.2002.tb18143.x
Subject(s) - atmosphere (unit) , curriculum , mathematics education , science education , scientific misconceptions , psychology , meteorology , pedagogy , geography
It is generally accepted that children have their own understanding of how the world works prior to receiving formal science instruction. A great deal of research has been done to determine students' misconceptions related to the physical sciences; less has been done to understand children's ideas in the Earth sciences. This paper reports a synthesis of the existing research about children's misconceptions relating to weather, climate and the atmosphere. The scientifically accepted interpretations are presented in tandem with the children's naïve ideas. When possible, a source of the misconception is also presented. In many cases, students' misconceptions are not addressed in the curriculum, allowing them to exist unchallenged.