students' misconceptions in Chemistry

Öz: Kimya, soyut kavramları çok olan ve kavramsal ağırlıklı bir bilimdir. Bu kavramların tanımı, kavramların içeriğine uygun olarak yapılmalı ve tanımlarda kimya öğretimi de dikkate alınmalıdır. Kavramların sadece bilimsel olarak doğru olması yeterli değildir. Bu araştırmada, " iyonlaşma enerjisi " kavramı kimya öğretiminin amaçları açısından kavramsal olarak incelendi ve 35 ders kitabında yer alan tanımlar bilimsel görüşü yansıtması ve anlaşılırlığı açısından değerlendirildi. İyonlaşma enerjisini tanımlarken elektronu koparılacak olan atomun ve bu atomdan koparılacak olan elektronun konumunun belirtilmesi önemlidir. Ancak basım dili İngilizce ve Türkçe olan ders kitaplarında iyonlaşma enerjisi tanımlanırken atomun konumu için " gaz halindeki bir atom " veya " gaz halindeki nötral bir atom " ; elektronun konumu içinde " en dış kabuktaki elektron " veya " en gevşek bağlı elektron " ifadelerinin sıklıkla tercih edildiği belirlendi. Ders kitaplarındaki bu tanımların genellikle IUPAC'ın tanımı ile uyumsuz olduğu ve iyonlaşma enerjisinin öğrenilebilmesi için uygun olmadığı sonucuna varıldı. Anahtar Kelimeler: iyonlaşma enerjisi, alternatif kavramalar, kimya eğitimi, temel kavramlar, ders kitabı inceleme Abstract: Chemistry is a concept-based discipline with numerous abstract concepts. These concepts should be defined appropriately for their content and chemistry education should also be taken into consideration in definitions. Scientific correctness of the concepts is not sufficient. This study analyzes the concept of ionization energy in terms of the targets of chemistry education and evaluates the definitions in textbooks in terms of reflecting scientific opinion and comprehensibility. It is important to indicate the location of the atom from which the electron will be ejected and the electron to be ejected from this atom while defining ionization energy. However, it was observed that the expressions of " a gaseous atom " or " a neutral gaseous atom " were frequently used for the location of the atom and the expressions of " the valence shell electron " or " the loosest-bound electron " were frequently used for the location of electron in the textbooks printed in English or Turkish. These definitions in textbooks do not comply with the definition of the IUPAC and not suitable for educational purposes.

Identifying students' misconceptions and learning difficulties and finding effective ways of addressing them has been one of the major concerns in chemistry education. However, the chemistry education community has paid little attention to determining discipline-specific aspects of chemistry that can lead to learning difficulties and misconceptions. In this article, it is argued that emergence plays a critical role in the epistemology and the ontology of chemistry and hence it should be taken into account for understanding learning difficulties and finding ways of addressing them in chemistry. It is particularly argued that one of the fundamental sources of learning difficulties and chemical misconceptions is learners' failure to understand the emergent nature of chemical entities, their properties, and interactions. In this article, an interpretive analysis framework is suggested for identifying specific learning demands and the sources of learners' misconceptions about the emergent chemical properties and phenomena. Findings from previous research on learners' misconceptions regarding emergent chemical properties are reanalyzed and interpreted through this framework. Inadequacies of typical teaching practices and their consequences are discussed from an emergentist perspective. Finally, implications of the emergentist perspective for more meaningful chemical education are discussed.

One of the aims of chemistry teaching is to provide students with the optimum condition for understanding concepts needed to interpret and predict natural phenomena. But the fulfilment of such hope cannot occur unless what is presented to the students is relevant and meaningful to them. The central concern of this study is to examine pre-service science teachers (henceforth, "subjects") whose fear and ignorance of chemicals impinges on their learning of chemistry. Two cohorts of third-year subjects in a semester chemistry course participated in the study. The study was motivated by the outcry regarding the general decline in student performance since their first year registration in the four-year science education degree programme. Data were derived from the subjects" responses to "My View and Knowledge of Chemistry" (MVKC) questionnaire and field notes. The findings of the study revealed that the subjects" interest and areas of concern varied: two-thirds indicated that they were most afraid of demonstrations and experiments about the properties of chemical substances and their reactions, while a quarter of them said the latter stimulated their interest in learning. The implications of the findings for chemistry education and instructional practice are highlighted in the paper.

The main purpose of this study was to identify prospective chemistry teachers' mental models of vapor pressure. The study involved 85 students in the Chemistry Teacher Training Department of a state university in Turkey. Participants' mental models of vapor pressure were explored using a concept test that involved qualitative comparison tasks. Additionally, 18 participants were interviewed to explore the mental models that emerged more deeply. The researcher analyzed responses using the constant comparative method to document participants' mental models and associated reasoning patterns in sufficient detail to be of practical use to instructors. Initial analysis of the data revealed that participants have many misconceptions about vapor pressure, which are similar to those reported in the literature. A more detailed constant comparative analysis revealed that these misconceptions derived mainly from three faulty mental models of vapor pressure: (1) vapor pressure of a liquid depends on the total number of vapor particles; (2) once the liquid– vapor equilibrium is established, the number of vapor particles is fixed and does not change regardless of the external effects on the system; and (3) vapor pressure is exerted only onto the surface of the liquid. The results have practical implications for teaching vapor pressure and science in general. By eliciting the underlying mental models of vapor pressure, these findings provide valuable insights for effective instructional interventions to address misconceptions.

ÖZ Kimya öğretmen adaylarının asitlik kavramı ile ilgili anlamalarını ve alternatif kavramalarını çizimler yoluyla belirlemeyi amaçlayan bu çalışma nitel yaklaşımı esas alan bir tarama çalışmasıdır. Çalışma, 109 kimya öğretmen adayı ile yürütüldü. Öğretmen adaylarının asitlik kavramı ile ilgili imajlarının mikroskobik boyutta çizimlerle tespit etmek için bu amaca uygun iki açık uçlu sorudan oluşan test veri toplama aracı olarak kullanıldı. Çalışma sonucunda kimya öğretmen adaylarının çoğunun asitlik kavramı ile ilgili iyonlaşma, hidratasyon, stokiyometri, derişim, derişik/seyreltik gibi kavramlarda bilimsel görüşe uygun olmayan imajlara sahip oldukları belirlendi. Öğretmen adaylarının bir asidin kuvvetini; bağ kuvvetine, ortamdaki türlerin cinsleri veya sayısına bağlı olarak açıkladıkları tespit edildi. Ayrıca öğretmen adaylarının " kuvvetli asitler iyonlaşmaz " , " ortamdaki H 3 O + sayısı arttıkça asitlik kuvveti artar " , " derişik asitler iyonlaşmaz, seyreltik asitler iyonlaşır " gibi alternatif kavramalara sahip oldukları belirlendi. Anahtar kelimeler: asitlik kuvveti, mikroskobik çizimler, alternatif kavrama, kimya öğretmen adayı ABSTRACT This study was designed as a survey model and aimed to determine chemistry preservice teachers' concepts of acidity and alternative conceptions through sub-microscopic drawings. It involved 109 preservice chemistry teachers. Two open ended questions for determining their images of acidity through microscopic drawings were used as a data collection tool. The results revealed that most of the participants have images that are not in accord with scientific thought about acidity, specifically regarding ionization, hydration, stoichiometry, concentration, concentrated/dilute. It was determined that preservice teachers explain the acid strength by bond strength and the amount and elements of molecules and ions present in solution. It was also determined that preservice teachers have alternative conceptions such as: " strong acids do not ionize, " " acidity

Science is all around us. From a young age, students start observing things around them and acquire knowledge from various sources such as, and including, the media and the social networks, which might not always be correct. At school, teachers try to keep scientific knowledge as simple as possible in order not to confuse and baffle students with content that they would not really need at that stage in their lives at school. However, at times, such methodologies might lead to incomplete or superficial knowledge that can eventually act as a hurdle or a barrier in the process of learning. The aim of this research study was to provide an insight into students' misconceptions regarding some basic chemical concepts relevant to the topic "Part 2: Keeping Alive, Topic A: The Chemicals of Life", that is part of the 2014 Secondary Education Certificate (SEC) Biology syllabus (which leads to the 16+ examination at the end of Secondary school) in Maltese Secondary schools. The investigation dealt with eventual patterns present in any misconceptions in the four different groups involved in the study: girls and boys with Biology as their only Science subject, and girls and boys having both Chemistry and Biology as subject options at school. The main research instrument used for this research study was a 30-minute multiple-choice test, taken by each of these four groups. The sample of students that were involved in the study was composed of about 20 students in each of the four categories. The outcomes of this research study suggest that, in general, students studying Chemistry harbour less misconceptions in certain chemical principles that are relevant to Biology. The study also shows that girls manifested less chemical misconceptions and that subject choice played a more significant role in the number of misconceptions for girls rather than for boys.