Students’ and teachers’ perceptions for composition of ionic compounds

Abstract

We investigate how chemistry-teacher students and teachers interpret chemical equations regarding the sub-microscopic level of solid ionic salts and their solutions. Addressing participants’ skills in making sense of chemical formulas might significantly influence students’ conceptual understanding: ionic salts formulas like Na2CO3(s), CaCO3(s), MgO(s) were established in the questionnaire. A coding system used to reveal participants’ reasoning correspond to their misconceptions. The enrolled participants were 101 undergraduate chemistry education students from Indonesia and Ethiopia and 24 chemistry teachers from Indonesia and Tanzania. Our results showed students’ and teachers’ difficulties in figuring out the involved ions of provided salts and interpreting the chemical formulas. Consequently, general chemistry learning should provide better fundamental knowledge on the submicroscopic level based on involved particles like atoms, ions, and molecules. It would also be helpful to introduce an appropriate sequence of historical ideas to find the existence of atoms, ions, and molecules.

Patterns in undergraduate students’ and educators’ sense of the ontology of the atom and implications for addressing learning impediments

“…Alternative conceptions with similar ontological implications have been evaluated and reported in Ethiopia also (Sileshi, 2011;Abayneh, 2013;Kindu and Mekonnen, 2016;Wisudawati et al, 2022). The mechanical ontology was found to be implied by much of the identified notion (Abayneh, 2018).…”

Learners’ issues in the preparation and qualitative analysis of salts topics in chemistry: Teachers’ perspectives

“…For many years, these topics have consistently been rated as among the most challenging topics by Malaysian students and teachers (Doraiseriyan & Damanhuri, 2021;Osman & Lay, 2020;Ting, 2016). Likewise, past and recent studies from other countries echoed students' similar issues and negative perceptions of learning the topics (Anim-Eduful & Adu-Gyamfi, 2022;Bouabdallah, 2021;Malkoc, 2017;Shidiq et al, 2019;Tan, 2005;Wisudawati et al, 2022).…”

“…In tandem, such proclamation can be found in a study by Doraiseriyan and Damanhuri (2021), which discussed the tendency of students to practice rote learning and remember facts without understanding the abstract concepts in salts topic. Other studies revealed that unfamiliarity with the chemistry concepts in salts topics had led them to memorize chemical concepts in the description of the word but unable to fathom and explain the memorized words (Izzati & Rochmah, 2020;Salame & Nikolic, 2021;Wisudawati et al, 2022).…”

“…For example, at the symbolic level of chemical representation, students are more likely to understand a formula as representing one unit and interpret the formulas for compounds in an additive rather than an integrated perspective. Besides, in a study by Wisudawati et al (2022), students struggled to accurately differentiate and use the terms Na+ ions, Cl-ions, H2O molecules, and CO2 molecules. In another study, students also experience difficulties interpreting the subscripts and coefficients in a reaction and balancing chemical processes from an algebraic standpoint without considering their' chemical meaning (Sana & Adhikary, 2017).…”