An Analysis of College Chemistry Textbooks As Sources of Misconceptions and Errors in Electrochemistry

Sanger, Michael J.; Greenbowe, Thomas J.

doi:10.1021/ed076p853

Cited by 91 publications

(92 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…Test items showed low discrimination indexes (0.11-0.23) and poor performance (average 22% correct). At least 32 common student misconceptions in the area of electrochemistry have been documented (Sanger & Greenbowe, 1999). The prevalence of the following misconceptions was confirmed by the items used in this instrument:…”

Section: Electrochemistrymentioning

confidence: 72%

Chemical concepts inventory of Grade 12 learners and UP foundation year students

Potgieter

Rogan

Howie

2005

African Journal of Research in Mathematics, Science and Technol

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Incoming chemistry students at tertiary institutions have a variety of academic backgrounds that influence their prospects of success at first-year level. The proficiencies of incoming students are currently changing due to the introduction of outcomes-based education and new syllabi for physical science in secondary schools. In order to ensure a smooth transition from secondary to tertiary education, university lecturers should be well informed about the content knowledge, conceptual understanding and skills development of prospective first-year students. This study evaluates the proficiencies of Grade 12 learners in physical science in terms of a number of clearly identified problem areas: conceptual understanding, logical scientific reasoning, basic mathematical ability, knowledge of subject content and scientific process skills. A test instrument was developed that consisted mainly of conceptual questions rather than recall or algorithmic items. Paired questions (two-tier methodology) and pictorial representations were used extensively. A follow-up question about certainty of response was included for all fixed-response items in order to evaluate the influence of guessing on response distributions. The test instrument was administered at the end of the third term to Grade 12 learners taking Physical science at three schools in privileged environments (1 English and 2 Afrikaans medium) and four township schools, and to all University of Pretoria Foundation Year (UPFY) students.Analysis of results highlighted the generally poor performance of students from township schools and the significant improvement in performance after one year of intensive instruction of UPFY students, who generally came from similar or more impoverished backgrounds. The poor performance for all cohorts on basic concepts, such as the mole concept, stoichiometry and the limiting reagent, as well as on several special topics, indicates that students lack a sound basis for tertiary chemistry. Of real concern is the evidence of over-confidence obtained from the certainty of response analyses. This result indicates that respondents failed to judge the complexity and level of difficulty of questions accurately. Learners/students from all groups displayed weak understanding of events at molecular level. In order to address this situation, lecturers at tertiary level will have to actively promote conceptual understanding of all basic concepts in chemistry and resist the temptation to teach and assess mainly procedural fluency. Analysis of certainty of response data showed that the guess factor was less serious a complication than anticipated.

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Section: Electrochemistrymentioning

confidence: 72%

Chemical concepts inventory of Grade 12 learners and UP foundation year students

Potgieter

Rogan

Howie

2005

African Journal of Research in Mathematics, Science and Technol

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“…Öğrencilerin alternatif kavramalara sahip olmasında onların geçmiş yaşantıları önemli bir etkendir (Harrison ve Treagust, 1996); bununla birlikte ders kitapları da öğrencilerin kavramları bilimsel görüşe uygun şekilde kavramalarına engel olabilir (Harrison ve Treagust, 1996;Sanger ve Greenbowe, 1999;Staver ve Lumpe, 1993;Yalçın ve Kılıç, 2005). Eğitim literatürü incelendiğinde hemen hemen her alanla ilgili öğrencilerin alternatif kavramalarını ve ders kitaplarının bunlara etkisini araştıran çalışmalar görülmektedir.…”

Section: Alternatif Kavramaların Kaynağı: Ders Kitaplarıunclassified

“…Previous experiences influence students' alternative conceptualizations (Harrison ve Treagust, 1996). Textbooks may also prevent students from comprehending concepts in a scientific way (Harrison ve Treagust, 1996;Sanger ve Greenbowe, 1999;Staver ve Lumpe, 1993;Yalçın ve Kılıç, 2005). There are many studies of students' alternative conceptions about almost every field and the effect of textbooks on them.…”

Section: A Conceptual Approach To the Definition Of Ionization Energymentioning

confidence: 99%

İyonlaşma Enerjisi Tanımına Kavramsal Yaklaşım

Yalçin-Çelik

Kılıç

2017

Bartın Üniversitesi Eğitim Fakültesi Dergisi

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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 A Conceptual Approach to the Definition of Ionization EnergyAbstract: 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.

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“…4 To support the quality of the textbook sets in chemistry education, significant attention has been paid to textbook analysis. For example, Abraham et al 5 studied eighth graders' degree of understanding of five selected chemistry concepts found in textbooks and attempted to identify related misconceptions; Sanger and Greenbowe 6 analysed the college chemistry textbooks as sources of misconceptions and errors in electrochemistry; Abd-El-Khalick, Waters, and Le 7 studied representations of nature of science in high school chemistry textbooks over the past four decades; Devetak, Vogrinc, and Glažar 8 studied explanations of states of matter in Slovenian science textbooks from 1th to 8th Grade; and Souza and Porto 9 analysed iconographic and textual aspects of chemistry textbooks which had significant diffusion in the context of Brazilian universities.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Integration of Submicroscopic Representations Used in Chemistry Textbook Sets into Curriculum Topics

Hrast

Savec

2017

ACSi

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To support the understanding of chemistry concepts and processes at the particulate level, various representations are included in learning materials. This paper focuses on how submicroscopic representations (SMRs) are integrated into Slovenian chemistry textbook sets with respect to the curriculum topics for 8th and 9th Grade. Textbook set analysis is based on four holistic SMRs descriptors (direct, indirect, combined descriptor, and SMRs without descriptors), which support learners' recognition of SMRs' informational value at different levels by providing different accompanying SMRs add-ons. The textbook sets analysis revealed that the number of SMRs varies significantly with regard to different curriculum topics. The overall proportion of the descriptors that enable the learner a direct recognition of SMRs is low in all curriculum topics. Interestingly, the descriptors that do not enable the learners a direct recognition of SMRs prevail in textbook sets. To obtain more detailed insight into the criteria based on which the textbook authors integrate SMRs with various descriptors into textbook sets, further studies are necessary.

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An Analysis of College Chemistry Textbooks As Sources of Misconceptions and Errors in Electrochemistry

Cited by 91 publications

References 15 publications

Chemical concepts inventory of Grade 12 learners and UP foundation year students

Chemical concepts inventory of Grade 12 learners and UP foundation year students

İyonlaşma Enerjisi Tanımına Kavramsal Yaklaşım

The Integration of Submicroscopic Representations Used in Chemistry Textbook Sets into Curriculum Topics

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