The use of an intervention programme to improve undergraduatestudents' chemical knowledge and address their misconceptions

As is well-known, the chemical knowledge is acquired at three levels: the macroscopic and tangible (what can be seen, touched and/or smelt); the sub-microscopic (atoms, molecules, ions and structures) and the representational (symbols, formulae, equations, mathematical manipulation, graphs etc.).In order to acquire real knowledge, all factors involved in the educational process (authors of textbooks, teachers, electronic sources of information and students) should do everything possible to avoid formation of school-made erroneous notions (misconceptions).Reported here are the findings of a study on the presence of students' misconcep tions regarding the three levels of representation in the chemistry teaching in the Republic of Macedonia. As our study showed, many school-made misconceptions are due to the fact that students do not distinguish between the three levels of thinking/representation.

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“…(HS-Ihigh achievers). Similar findings like those mentioned above are reported in the literature [63][64][65][66].…”

Section: R: Do You Think That If the Volume Is Larger The Molecule Msupporting

confidence: 81%

Study of the Use of the Three Levels of Thinking and Representation

Стојановска¹,

Petruševski²,

Šoptrajanov³

2017

Contributions

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“…(iii) Active pedagogies and direct instruction -Active pedagogies that include collaborative work, peer teaching, hands-on activities, and formative assessment have all been shown to ameliorate conceptual difficulties and to foster deeper understanding (Kogut, 1996;Hake, 1998;Knight and Wood, 2005;Eberlein et al, 2008;Regan et al, 2011;Villafane et al, 2011), although some educators believe that a constructivist approach that addresses alternative conceptions head-on is not needed for transmission of all concepts in chemistry (Coll & Taylor, 2001). Active pedagogy alone, however is not sufficient to overcome deeply-held alternative conceptions; specially-designed interventions that are integrated into course design can be successful but require intense attention that precludes wide "coverage" of material (Villafane et al, 2011;Loertscher and Minderhout, personal communication).…”

Section: What Are the Implications For Teaching In Biochemistry?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Student conceptions about energy transformations: progression from general chemistry to biochemistry

Wolfson

Rowland

Lawrie

et al. 2014

Chem. Educ. Res. Pract.

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Students commencing studies in biochemistry must transfer and build on concepts they learned in chemistry and biology classes. It is well established, however, that students have difficulties in transferring critical concepts from general chemistry courses; one key concept is “energy.” Most previous work on students' conception of energy has focused on their understanding of energy in the context of physics (including the idea of “work”) and/or their understanding of energy in classical physical and inorganic chemistry contexts (particularly Gibbs Free Energy changes, the second law of thermodynamics, and equilibrium under standard conditions within a closed system). For biochemistry, students must go beyond those basic thermodynamics concepts of work, standard energy changes, and closed systems, and instead they must consider what energy flow, use, and transformation mean in living, open, and dynamic systems. In this study we explored students' concepts about free energy and flow in biological chemical reactions and metabolic pathways by surveys and in-depth interviews. We worked with students in general chemistry classes and biochemistry courses in both an Australian and a US tertiary institution. We address three primary questions (i) What are the most common alternative conceptions held by students when they explain energy-related phenomena in biochemistry?, (ii) What information do students transfer from introductory chemistry and biology when they are asked to consider energy in a biological reaction or reaction pathway?, and (iii) How do students at varying levels of competence articulate their understandings of energy in pathways and biological reactions? The answers to these questions are used to build a preliminary learning progression for understanding “energy” in biochemistry. We also propose crucial elements of content knowledge that instructors could apply to help students better grasp this threshold concept in biochemistry.

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“…wis structure and electronegativity. Using "the rules" to determine ON of complex compound can lead to mistake knowledge and misconception (Regan et al, 2011). From 9 common high school chemistry textbooks (Table 2), only 2 books provide the information of electronegativity to determine ON.…”

Section: The Correlation Of On Chemical Bonding and Electronegativitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Incomplete Explanation in Determining Oxidation Number: A Case Study on Chemistry Program Students

Rahmat

Amanda

Bemis

et al. 2018

JPII

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The term "oxidation number" and related concept such as "electronegativity" and "formal charge" appear frequently in both elementary and advance chemistry text. However, it is evident from the literature (or textbooks) that these terms are often viewed to be synonymous. Incomplete explanation of the fundamental concept of oxidation number can lead that conclusions pertaining to such a misleading interpretation. This research was conducted to review the concepts from common used high school chemistry textbooks and these concepts were then transformed to 6 number open minded problems. These problems were then tested to 40 first semester chemistry program students in the University of Jambi who joining Basic Chemistry course. The result was about 80% of students give the right answer in determining oxidation number (problem number 1). But, in the certain molecule (problem number 2) they can't determine correctly because they couldn't use the "Rule" from initial understanding in high school. For the next problem (4a), none of the students give the right oxidation number of an atom and all of them can't explain precisely correlation among oxidation number, electronegativity, and formal charge. The intent of this paper is to clarify the notion of oxidation number, electronegativity, and formal charge, describe their relationship (especially for high school chemistry textbooks), and criticize upon misleading application.

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The use of an intervention programme to improve undergraduatestudents' chemical knowledge and address their misconceptions

Cited by 24 publications

References 45 publications

Study of the Use of the Three Levels of Thinking and Representation

Study of the Use of the Three Levels of Thinking and Representation

Student conceptions about energy transformations: progression from general chemistry to biochemistry

Incomplete Explanation in Determining Oxidation Number: A Case Study on Chemistry Program Students

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