This paper reports the results of a survey of 3,006 Year 10-12 students on their understandings of metallic bonding. The instrument was developed based on Chi's ontological categories of scientific concepts and students' understanding of metallic bonding as reported in the literature. The instrument has two parts. Part one probes into students' understanding of metallic bonding as (a) a submicro structure of metals, (b) a process in which individual metal atoms lose their outermost shell electrons to form an sea-electron and octet metal cations, or (c) an all-directional electrostatic force between delocalized electrons and metal cations, that is, an interaction. Part two assesses students' explanation of malleability of metals, for example (a) as a submicro structural rearrangement of metal atoms/cations or (b) based on all-directional electrostatic force. The instrument was validated by the Rasch Model. Psychometric assessment showed that the instrument possessed reasonably good properties of measurement. Results revealed that it was reliable and valid for measuring students' understanding of metallic bonding. Analysis revealed that the structure, process and interaction understandings were unidimensional and in an increasing order of difficulty. Implications for the teaching of metallic bonding, particular through the use of diagrams, critiques and model-based learning, are discussed.
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