Pupils encounter the subject of chemistry during the last two years of attending primary school. The master's thesis is based on identification and overcoming pupils' misunderstandings of contents, which are defined in the chemistry elementary school curriculum, more precisely in the chapter Acids, bases and salts.
The theoretical part of the master’s thesis presents the misconceptions, that pupils deal with during chemistry lessons. They mainly relate to pupils' lack of prior knowledge, incorrect use of scientific language, misunderstanding of the triple nature of chemical concepts and processes, pupils' non-scientific beliefs and lack of connection between the contents of chemistry subject matter and everyday life. In continuation, the master's thesis focuses on the misconceptions that pupils encounter at the neutralization reaction. It is clear from the literature overview, that the neutralization reaction is mistakenly perceived by many students as a "reaction in which a base destroys the properties of an acid". However, they are familiar with the definition that defines a neutralization reaction as a reaction between an acid and a base, in which salt and water are formed. But they believe that molecules of acid and base are present in the aqueous solution.
To support pupils in overcoming misconceptions of the concept of neutralization on a partial (submicroscopic) and symbolic level, a teaching aid based on the principle of a puzzle was created. In the empirical part of the master's thesis, the effectiveness of the teaching aid puzzle was studied, namely on a random sample of 113 ninth-graders from the Nova Gorica region elementary schools. The pupils were divided into control and experimental group. In the control group, the pupils solved a test without the support of the puzzle learning tool. In the experimental group, the pupils solved the test with the support of a puzzle learning tool. Statistical analysis comparing the results of tests between the control and experimental groups did not show any significant differences in learning achievements. Due to the similar learning achievements among the pupils of each group, we can conclude that the puzzle does not help to overcome misconceptions of the concept of neutralization at the partial and symbolic level. Nevertheless, the pupils believe that the teaching aid enables them a more practical way and a better perception of neutralization reaction. Some students also think that using a learning aid enables them a better focus when learning about neutralization.
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