Changing Children's Conceptions of Burning

Relatively few studies have examined the effects of instruction on children's understanding of burning. This study focused on three questions: (a) What are children's views of burning prior to and after instruction? (b) Do children's views become more scientific, that is, more in accord with scientists' views, with instruction, and if so, how? (c) Are the changes in children's understanding of burning correlated to their ages? Data were collected before and after five hours of instruction in a Saturday Science Program, using both a short multiple choice test based on common misconceptions from the literature and "interviews about events." Children were divided into two classes according to their grade in school. A significant difference was found in children's understanding before and after instruction on the multiple‐choice test that was corroborated with interview data. Younger children (ages 8 to 11) made more significant gains than did the older children (ages 11 to 13), with both groups reaching similar levels of understanding after instruction. Although notable gains were made in recognizing the need for oxygen in burning and in distinguishing between decomposition and burning, interviews revealed that few children at any age could explain specifically what was happening on the phenomena level.