Alternative frameworks: Newton's third law and conceptual change

Pupils’ alternative frameworks and misconceptions about force and motion have been widely reported. The various investigations clearly show that children have difficulty in applying Newton's first and second laws to everyday situations. This report highlights some of the difficulties that children experience with Newton's third law. It suggests that we should be more concerned with children's overall understanding of the concept of force and that this understanding is underpinned by an understanding of the third law. Suggestions are made for promoting conceptual change based on a model first proposed by Posner et al. (1982).