Students' Understanding of Solution Chemistry Concepts

Pınarbaşı, Tacettin; Canpolat, Nurtaç

doi:10.1021/ed080p1328

Cited by 78 publications

(61 citation statements)

References 24 publications

(28 reference statements)

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“…Research in chemistry education has demonstrated that students often have difficulty understanding molecular-level behaviour, including molecular-level perspectives that explain observations regarding aqueous solutions and reactions (Ebenezer & Erickson, 1996;Nakhleh, 1992;Pinarbasi & Canpolat, 2003;Raviolo, 2001;Smith & Metz, 1996). For example, when dissolved in pure water, some chemical compounds (called electrolytes) yield solutions that conduct electricity, while other Chemists explain such observations from a molecular-level perspective: electrolytes dissociate into ions (charged particles) in solution, and the movement of the ions enables the flow of electric current through a circuit, whereas non-electrolytes do not dissociate into ions in solution.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of Context on Students’ Molecular‐Level Ideas

Teichert

Tien

Anthony

et al. 2008

International Journal of Science Education

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In the studies reported here, we investigate the effects of context on students' molecular-level ideas regarding aqueous solutions. During one-on-one interviews, 19 general chemistry students recruited from a two-year community college and a research university in the United States were asked to describe their molecular-level ideas about various aqueous solutions in the contexts of conductivity and boiling-point (BP) elevation. Results indicate that context is important for determining the molecular-level ideas that students express. Specifically, students were significantly more likely to draw pictures of aqueous NaCl as separated ions in the conductivity context compared with the BP elevation context, for which they more often drew "molecular" NaCl. This phenomenon was particularly striking because the students drew molecular-level NaCl(aq) pictures in the BP elevation context just minutes after completing the identical task in the context of conductivity. Additional data from laboratory assignments and course examinations further indicate that, even if students are able to correctly represent the molecular level in some contexts, their knowledge may remain inert in slightly different contexts. The results emphasise the importance of the context dependence of molecular-level ideas and have implications for designing instruction in which students develop robust, coherent understandings that they can apply appropriately in new contexts.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of Context on Students’ Molecular‐Level Ideas

Teichert

Tien

Anthony

et al. 2008

International Journal of Science Education

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“…Narration by Dr. Ann Ion helps clarify what the viewer is seeing and highlighting techniques are also used to scaffold the process. Studies indicate that beginning general chemistry students have a limited understanding of the molecular and electrolytic behavior of strong electrolytes, weak electrolytes and non-electrolytes (32,(39)(40)(41)(42)(43)). Many students will express only the simple whole number ratio of ions when constructing atomic level pictures.…”

Section: Building the Context -Developing Electronic Learning Toolsmentioning

confidence: 99%

How a Qualitative Study with Chemistry Instructors Informed Atomic Level Animation Design

Kelly

2013

ACS Symposium Series

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“…Second, because people often view humans as exceptions in biological evolution (Pinarbasi and Canpolat 2003), it is important to compare responses to similar questions involving both humans and nonhuman organisms. Although the pilot survey did include humans in some questions, these questions did not involve a range of taxonomic distances.…”

Section: Fall 2009 Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The ability to define a concept without being able to apply it to particular cases is common in education and has been observed in other fields. For example, Pinarbasi and Canpolat (2003) found that while undergraduate chemistry students could correctly define terms related to solution chemistry (for example, unsaturated, saturated, and supersaturated solutions) on an open-response exam question, only 16.8% could correctly apply these definitions to an example. Our results reveal a particularly extreme case of a deeply held misconception.…”

Section: Conclusion and Recommendations For Teachingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Freshman Undergraduate Biology Students’ Difficulties with the Concept of Common Ancestry

White

Yamamoto

2011

Evo Edu Outreach

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All life on earth descended from a single common ancestor that existed several billion years ago; thus, any pair of organisms will have had a common ancestor at some point in their history. This concept is fundamental to an understanding of evolution and phylogeny. Developing an understanding of this concept is an important goal of evolution education and a part of most high school and college biology curricula. This study examines freshman undergraduate biology majors' understanding and application of the concept of common ancestry. We used a survey that asked students to provide a brief definition of common ancestry and to rate their confidence that different pairs of organisms shared a common ancestor. Our results show that, although many students in our sample could give a satisfactory definition of common ancestry, the overwhelming majority failed to apply their definitions correctly when assessing the likelihood that the pairs of organisms shared common ancestors. Instead, we found that these students do not treat common ancestry as a binary (yes/no) trait, but instead see it as a continuum from less probable to more probable. These students are more likely to think that closely related organisms have a common ancestor than those that are more distantly related and that humans are less likely to be connected to common ancestors than nonhuman organisms. This pattern is highly consistent from student to student and has important implications for teaching evolution.

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Students' Understanding of Solution Chemistry Concepts

Cited by 78 publications

References 24 publications

Effects of Context on Students’ Molecular‐Level Ideas

Effects of Context on Students’ Molecular‐Level Ideas

How a Qualitative Study with Chemistry Instructors Informed Atomic Level Animation Design

Freshman Undergraduate Biology Students’ Difficulties with the Concept of Common Ancestry

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