Pupils' Selection and Application of Oversimplified Principles

The level at which scientific principles are taught must be adapted to the scientific level of the learner, and, accordingly school science consists only of simplified versions of these principles. However, these versions may turn out to have been over‐simplified, in the sense that the pupils remain unable to use them accurately at the required level. These ‘blurred representations’ of the principles lack the crucial attributes which confer upon them their specific meanings. Pupils then tend to ascribe to the principles meanings and implications which they do not possess. Such erroneous perceptions of the principles are difficult to diagnose because pupils display them only while irrelevantly using the principles, and irrelevant use is difficult to predict. This paper describes such a pattern of failure to apply relevant principles. 1989 British Educational Research Association