A study of first-year chemistry students' understanding of solution concentration at the tertiary level

Berg, Kevin C. de

doi:10.1039/c1rp90056k

Cited by 31 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 49 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Fourteen students who provided wrong answer showed that they were either not aware or they assumed nitrogen and hydrogen exist as atoms. The low success rate of the question was similar to the studies carried out by [26]. The studies reported that tertiary students were much more successful in solving the questions that were presented in macroscopic form than sub-microscopic form.…”

Section: Analysis Of Reasoning Categories In the Open-ended Test Resultssupporting

confidence: 79%

“…In dealing with questions presented in sub-microscopic form, about half of the students were confused between atoms and molecules. Berg [26] claimed that students were much more successful in solving the questions presented in macroscopic form than sub-microscopic form. This could be due to some macroscopic form questions only required fixed memorized algorithmic steps, which do not promote conceptual understanding.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…25) Glass beaker X contains twice the volume of solution as that in beaker Z. If four molecules of glucose are dissolved in Z as shown below: [26] (i) Which one of the following alternatives represent beaker X if the glucose concentrations are the same in both beakers? THE END…”

Section: Limitations Of the Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Nicoll claimed that current instructional practices for chemistry do not facilitate conceptual understanding [25]. Added to that, the concept of solution concentration is foundational to solution chemistry [26]. Lack of conceptual understanding in the mole concept and solution concentration will hinder students' progress especially when they have to undertake final-year hands-on project and industrial training.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Post-secondary Science Students' Understanding on Mole Concept and Solution Concentration

Chong¹,

Goolamally²,

Eu³

2019

ujer

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Due to their abstract nature, the mole concept and solution concentration are difficult for students to understand and apply to stoichiometric calculations. This study was designed to investigate students' perceptions and difficulties in solving problems related to the mole concept and solution concentration. Thirty-eight students (18-19 years old) who were pursuing science related programmes from a private university college in Malaysia participated in the study. Students were asked to answer twenty-five open-ended questions on the mole concept and solution concentration. Analysis of students' responses revealed that they were not able to connect the mole concept with mass and number of particles. Students were also grappling to answer problems regarding concentration and dilution. This study suggests that it is important to determine whether students' difficulties to master the concepts are due to lack of knowledge or the presence of alternative frameworks so that so that pedagogical instruction can be modified. This study was part of a larger research project where students' responses on this open-ended test will be used to get a greater generalizability in order to construct the alternatives to the four-tier multiple choice (4TMC) instrument to identify students' alternative frameworks on these concepts.

show abstract

Section: Analysis Of Reasoning Categories In the Open-ended Test Resultssupporting

confidence: 79%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Limitations Of the Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Post-secondary Science Students' Understanding on Mole Concept and Solution Concentration

Chong¹,

Goolamally²,

Eu³

2019

ujer

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Failure to understand these processes and effects can result in wrong questions being posed, misconceptions, and poor course grades. 1,2 Students' misunderstandings commonly occur with content that is based on understanding processes at a particulate level, such as the structure of matter and physical changes, 3,4 solutions, [5][6][7] chemical reactions, 8 equilibrium in aqueous solutions of electrolytes, 9 and so on.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Beyond the use of an Explanatory Key Accompanying Submicroscopic Representations

Savec

Hrast

Devetak

et al. 2016

ACSi

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

When learning chemistry, students encounter various visualizations introducing scientific concepts and processes unobservable to the naked eye. It is often assumed that these visualizations support students' understanding and enable them to solve problems more efficiently. The research presented here investigates students' use of an explanatory key while solving tasks based on submicroscopic representations. The following features of the explanatory key were examined: 1) colored versus black-and-white, and 2) pictorial versus textual. Eye-fixation patterns and students' verbal explanations indicated that the presence of color in the key does not influence students' task solving. However, significant differences were observed with regard to a textual versus pictorial key used in the tasks: students spent more time and fixated more frequently on the key while solving tasks using a textual key in comparison to a pictorial key. The results indicate that the type of explanatory key might play an important role in revealing students' representational competence with regard to submicroscopic representations.

show abstract

Applying Quantitative and Covariational Reasoning to Think About Systems: The Example of Climate Change

González

2022

Quantitative Reasoning in Mathematics and Science Education

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

A study of first-year chemistry students' understanding of solution concentration at the tertiary level

Cited by 31 publications

References 49 publications

Post-secondary Science Students' Understanding on Mole Concept and Solution Concentration

Post-secondary Science Students' Understanding on Mole Concept and Solution Concentration

Beyond the use of an Explanatory Key Accompanying Submicroscopic Representations

Applying Quantitative and Covariational Reasoning to Think About Systems: The Example of Climate Change

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About