Preconceptions in physics among pupils in primary school

Significant attention has been devoted to research of the physics preconceptions among primary school children. However, the theoretical anchoring of the term preconcept is often insufficient and commonly used research techniques do not take into consideration the complexity of this phenomenon in many cases. In this study, we present a complex research approach based on the understanding of preconception as disposition. We identified problematical tasks from the TIMSS international survey focusing on 4^th grade pupils based on clear criteria. In total, 11 multiple-choice tasks out of 97 analysed were identified as problematical which were most frequently related to the concepts of heat and heat transfer (4 tasks), state of matter (2 tasks) and gravitation (2 tasks). Moreover, an additional survey of 100 high school students aged 15-17 years were carried out using the same tasks in order to understand how physics learning has affected the identified preconceptions. We have also gathered data from students who studied beforementioned concepts in distance learning. Thus, it is possible to compare results (affected preconceptions) from distance and non-distance education. We have found that some of the incorrect preconceptions are corrected during the physics learning but other persist among significant number of pupils. It may have significant consequences for the effectivity of physics teaching at higher stage because of teachers do not expect such extent of fundamental misunderstanding among students. Further research focusing on identification of such incorrect preconceptions and ways how to overcome them in practice is thus highly needed.