Utilizing Multidimensional Scaling to Represent the Conceptual Structures of Atomic Structure in Upper-Secondary School Teachers and Students

Abstract

This research aimed to explore the upper-secondary school chemistry teachers’ and students’ conceptual structures of atomic structure by using multidimensional scaling. Atomic structure is considered to be one of the most difficult concepts in upper-secondary school chemistry course so that the conceptual structure regarding atomic structure held by the learner is necessary to examine. Based on a questionnaire survey for upper-secondary school chemistry teachers and university chemistry professors, 40 concepts were selected as a useful concept pool of atomic structure. Then, the conceptual structures and the specific classifications of concepts from 168 upper-secondary school chemistry teachers and 336 tenth-grade students were investigated by multidimensional scaling and hierarchical cluster analysis. The results showed that the 3-D solutions were appropriate for the conceptual structures of teachers and students respectively. Next, the conceptual structure of teachers utilized as an evaluation criterion was more scientific than that of students. The conceptual structure of students with high academic achievement was more scientific than that of the low achievers. Multidimensional scaling utilized to explore students’ conceptual structure of scientific concepts can provide a new and benefic form of evidence to understand the concept learning outcome of students. Keywords: atomic structure, conceptual structure, hierarchical cluster analysis, multidimensional scaling

Students’ Conceptual Structures Regarding Redox Reaction: Combining Multidimensional Scaling and Hierarchical Cluster Analysis Approaches

“…Second, this study is the initial attempt to utilize MDS and HCA to explore and analyze the conceptual structure of redox reactions in students' minds. The conceptual structure obtained in this study gives access to the spatial representation of the conceptual structure as well as the conceptual clustering within it (Lin et al, 2022;Qian et al, 2023), providing insight into the degree of refinement of students' understanding of redox reactions.…”

“…In the field of science education, various methods have been employed to understand the organization of concepts within the minds of individuals or groups, including concept maps (Burrows & Mooring, 2015;Edmondson, 2005;He et al, 2023), word associations (Gulacar et al, 2015;Gulacar et al, 2022;Nakiboglu, 2008), pathfinder networks (Casas-García & Luengo-González, 2013;Fesel et al, 2015), factor analysis Tang et al, 2022), reaction time technique , multidimensional scaling (MDS) (Lin et al, 2022;Qian et al, 2023), and hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) (Lin et al, 2022;Qian et al, 2023).…”

“…Different groupings of items will result in different potential variables. To address this issue, further analysis of the spatial coordinate values of the items using cluster analysis can be conducted (Lin et al, 2022). Cluster analysis allows categorization based on the distance among items.…”

“…To represent more clearly and intuitively the clustering among items in the three-dimensional solution image, Figures 2 and 3 present 10 th and 12 th graders' two-dimensional mapping images of the three-dimensional solutions (Lin et al, 2022). A three-dimensional solution was appropriate for the conceptual structure of 10 th graders.…”

“…Conceptual structure refers to the cognitive representation of a concept within an individual's mind, encompassing each of the concept's components and the relationship among those components (Lin et al, 2022;Qian, 2008). A long-held assumption in cognitive and educational psychology holds that an individual should comprehend the interrelationships between concepts to be knowledgeable and aware of a certain domain (Goldsmith et al, 1991).…”