Linking the Macroscopic, Sub-microscopic and Symbolic Levels: The Case of Inorganic Qualitative Analysis

The Effect of Different Textual Narrations on Students’ Explanations at the Submicroscopic Level in Chemistry

“…Submicroscopic and guided imagery textual narrations were written at the submicroscopic level while the third one was written at the macroscopic level and was used as a control. The current study builds on the previous research (Tan et al, 2009;Tsaparlis, 2009) which emphasizes the importance of providing students with the submicroscopic 'building blocks' of chemistry and helping them translate between the macroscopic observations and their related submicroscopic species. The results of this study might help to conclude whether students spontaneously think at the submicroscopic level, as many chemistry teachers would assume they do (Treagust et al, 2003), or whether they need to be cued to do so.…”

“…Explanations in terms of submicroscopic entities such as atoms, molecules and electrons facilitate students' meaningful understanding and the prediction of macroscopic phenomena. Although macroscopic experience through practical work and experimentation is considered to be a prerequisite for understanding chemical phenomena, for this understanding to be complete it should be finalized through the submicroscopic and symbolic levels (Chandrasegaran, Treagust, & Mocerino, 2009;Tan, Goh, Chin, & Treagust, 2009;Treagust, et al, 2003;Tsaparlis, 2009). To reach this epistemological status of 'meta-visualization', as suggested by Gilbert (2008), students need to: 1) understand the convention for the three different levels, 2) translate between the three levels by thinking back and forth in terms of macro-micro relationships, and 3) be able to construct a representation for a given phenomenon within any of the three levels.…”

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“…The current study builds on the previous research (Tan et al, 2009;Tsaparlis, 2009) which emphasizes the importance of providing students with the submicroscopic 'building blocks' of chemistry and helping them translate between the macroscopic observations and their related submicroscopic species. The results of this study might help to conclude whether students spontaneously think at the submicroscopic level, as many chemistry teachers would assume they do (Treagust et al, 2003), or whether they need to be cued to do so.…”

An analysis of the visual representation of redox reactions and related content in Brazilian secondary school chemistry textbooks

“…At the symbolic level, students must be able to represent reactions by writing redox equations. In general, it is difficult to establish direct relationships between these three representational levels of chemistry (Eilks et al, 2007;Tan et al, 2009). Unfortunately, students tend to most frequently explain phenomena at the macroscopic level, because they live in the macroscopic world and can only make observations at this level (Gabel, 1999).…”

“…It has also been suggested that visual representations have the potential to contribute to a better understanding of the meaning of texts in textbooks (Dimopoulos et al, 2003). Research reports that when learners have access to visual representations in addition to a text, it becomes easier for them to comprehend the concepts presented (Carney and Levin, 2002;Tan et al, 2009). Since much of the contact by the students with the visual representation of content is mediated through textbooks (Lee, 2010), it is important to ensure that visual representations are carefully used in textbooks.…”