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This paper explores students' ability to analyse andinterpret empirical data as inadequate data analysis skills and understandings may contribute to the renowned disappointing outcomes of practical work in secondary school physics. Selected competences, derived from a collection of leading curricula, are explored through interviews and practical tasks, each consisting of three probes. The 51 students, aged 15 and commencing post-compulsory science education in the Netherlands, were able to carry out basic skills such as collecting data and representing these. In interpreting the data in terms of the investigated phenomenon or situation however, performance was weak. Students often appeared to be unable to identify the crucial features of a given graph. Conclusions based on the data were often tautological or superficial, lacking salient features. Students failed to infer implications from the data, to interpret data at a higher level of abstraction, or to specify limitations to the validity of the analysis or conclusions. The findings imply that the students' understanding of data-analysis should be developed further before they can engage successfully in more 'open' practical work. The study offers a collection of activities that may help to address the situation, suggesting a baseline for guided development of data analysis abilities.

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In an exploratory study, 36 South African physical science teachers' understanding of basic concepts concerning electric and magnetic fields was studied from a perspective of possible concept confusion. Concept confusion is said to occur when features of one concept are incorrectly attributed to a different concept, in the case of this study to magnetic and electric fields. An example of concept confusion is the perception that a magnetic north pole has an excess of positive charges and consequently attracts negative charges placed in the field. The researchers constructed a framework of 20 interrelated critical aspects of which the scientific topic is composed conceptually. Next, the understanding of concepts and interactions in electric and magnetic fields by 36 teachers of physical science (a subject combining physics and chemistry for grades 10-12), who were enrolled for an in-service subject knowledge upgrading course, was probed through questionnaires and interviews. This approach allowed us to answer the central research question of this study: what alternative understandings do teachers have of the topic of electric and magnetic fields in terms of potential concept confusion? The teachers' understanding does appear to be interpretable in terms of whether or not they distinguish between the critical aspects identified in this study. The results show six categories of aspects of electric and magnetic fields causing teachers' inability to distinguish between the two fields, with a consequent confusion of concepts. These categories are: sources of currents; sources of electric fields; sources of magnetic fields; the effects of electric and magnetic fields on materials; electric and magnetic forces; and the direction of the electric and magnetic forces. Results from this research study may contribute to the enhancement of physical science teacher training and consequently school teaching.

South Africa is introducing Outcomes Based Education as an approach to teach the new Curriculum 2005 (C2005). The new curriculum contains exciting new aspects for the Natural Sciences. For example, in addition to learning traditional science subject matter, children are expected to develop also an understanding of the 'changing and contested nature of knowledge in the natural sciences', i.e. of the 'Nature of Science' (NOS). Since curriculum reform depends crucially on the teachers, it is important to find out whether their understandings of the NOS are in accordance with what they are required to teach. We explored existing understandings of the NOS among participants in several teacher professional development programmes through an internationally validated questionnaire backed up by semi-structured interviews. The questionnaire was expanded to elicit possible culturally and socially determined aspects of understandings of the NOS. We compare the teachers' understandings of the NOS with the understandings delineated in C2005. Teachers' understandings differ from those advocated in C2005 but match international research findings. Culturally determined views are found on the status of different knowledge systems. As a follow-up to this study, an exploration is under way into the impact of an in-service teacher-training programme directed at bringing teachers' understandings in line with the requirements of Curriculum 2005.