This is learning metabolism, especially respiration. It is hard to teach respiration without showing the structural changes that occur in the molecules. This means presenting chemical structures, which most students find intimidating. The loss of confidence caused by the fear of chemical structure leaves students grasping more fervently and less rationally for an order to respiration. I believe this strong attempt to make sense of what they are learning leads many students to jump to the wrong conclusion and then hold that conclusion very strongly.
Subsequent information has a hard time undoing the initial conclusions students make.
One of the most obvious and common mistakes is the assumption that respiration is synonymous with animals since plants have photosynthesis to supply their needs. This could reflect an animal bias in high school biology, but I think that does not explain the difficulty in getting students to see respiration as common to nearly all organisms. Solutions to this problem could include Teach photosynthesis before respiration. A solution often adopted in plant physiology textbooks, this approach is probably not feasible in an introductory biology text. Emphasize the unifying themes in biology.