Fourteen-year-old students' misconceptions regarding the sub-micro and symbolic levels of specific chemical concepts

Slapničar, Miha (author), Tompa, Valerija (author), Glažar, Saša A. (author), Devetak, Iztok (author)

Learning and presenting chemical concepts at the triple level of chemical concepts provides opportunities for the development of misconceptions. The research aimed to identify potential misconceptions of chemical concepts: the states of matter, a pure substance, a mixture, an element, a compound, a physical change, and a chemical reaction at the sub-micro level when solving problems incorporating sub-microrepresentations. A total of 188 14-year old students, attending six different primary schools, participated in the research. A chemistry achievement test comprising five problems at the macroscopic, sub-micro, and symbolic levels was used to obtain data about students’ misconceptions of selected concepts. The results showed that the majority of students had formed inadequate mental models (misconceptions) for the chemical concept of the liquid state of water (66.5%). The lowest level of misconceptions is related with the gaseous state of matter, because almost all students (98.5%) solved the problem correctly. It can be concluded that the results of the research are significant for chemistry teachers because they can: select and apply adequate educational strategies to avoid the deepening or development of misconceptions and make the courses practically oriented by analysing students’ misconceptions and develop teaching strategies to minimise these problems in the chemistry classroom.

• Language: English
• Keywords: chemical concepts, primary school, misconceptions, sub-micro level, symbolic level
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: PEF - Faculty of Education
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2018
• Number of pages: Str. 620-632
• Numbering: Vol. 17, no. 4
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-102368
• UDC: 373.3:54
• ISSN on article: 2538-7138
• DOI: 10.33225/jbse/18.17.620
• COBISS.SI-ID: 12095817

Copyright

Podatek o licenci CC BY-NC 4.0 je naveden na pristajalni strani članka (glej zgoraj izvorni URL). (Datum opombe: 5. 9. 2025)

• Publication date in RUL: 31.08.2018

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Journal of Baltic science education
• Shortened title: J. Balt. sci. educ.
• Publisher: Scientia Socialis (Lithuania)
• ISSN: 2538-7138
• COBISS.SI-ID: 11810121

Licences

• License: CC BY-NC 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
• Description: A creative commons license that bans commercial use, but the users don’t have to license their derivative works on the same terms.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: submikroskopske predstavitve, kemijski koncepti