Primary Teachers’ Particle Ideas and Explanations of Physical Phenomena: Effect of an in‐service training course

Abstract This paper presents a study concerning Greek primary school teachers? (n=162) ideas about the particulate nature of matter and their explanations of physical phenomena. The study took place during an in-service training course where the effectiveness of a specially designed intervention was tested. A key feature was an approach based on the concept of a substance and its states rather than `solids, liquids and gases? . Pre-intervention, the teachers held misconceptions similar to those of pupils. Also, there seemed to be some relationship between the teachers? particle model ideas and their explanations of phenomena. Post-intervention, the teachers? descriptions and explanations were found to be significantly improved, with almost zero correlation between pre and post intervention scores. Implications for science education are discussed.