Gourlay, H;
(2026)
Revisiting the teaching of forces in KS3.
Physics Education
, 61
(1)
, Article 015018. 10.1088/1361-6552/ae1c12.
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Abstract
This article considers some of the challenges presented by the forces topic for students in the 11–14 age range, as well as for student teachers. Although all young people have studied forces as part of Science in the National Curriculum in England since its inception in 1989, science graduates starting teacher training frequently present with weaknesses in their physics subject knowledge. This article explores possible reasons for these deficits from the perspectives of Piaget’s stage theory, conceptual change theory and knowledge-in-pieces. There is a possibility that the cognitive demand of material in the curriculum exceeds the cognitive abilities of learners. Another possibility is that teaching has not been successful in overcoming, or building upon, students’ preconceptions. At the curricular level, the article asks whether we attempt to teach ideas that are too complex too early, and suggests a change to the order in which concepts are introduced, based on existing science education research. The article makes practical suggestions for teaching, in particular to take into account students’ cognitive abilities, and to address the preconception that forces are needed to maintain motion. It argues that teaching strategies involving sense-making by considering problems that are meaningful to learners, eliciting learners’ existing ideas, observing phenomena and developing theories through classroom discussion, comparing the merits of competing explanations, may better support development of understanding. A reduction in content in the curriculum is suggested to make time for this activity, and teachers will need additional professional development opportunities to develop new teaching strategies.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Revisiting the teaching of forces in KS3 |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1088/1361-6552/ae1c12 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6552/ae1c12 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright 2026 IOP Publishing. Original content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Curriculum, Pedagogy and Assessment |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10220200 |
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