Students’ and Teachers’ Alternative Conceptions About Electrochemistry (original) (raw)
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South African twelfth grade students' conceptions regarding Electrochemistry
Journal of Education and Learning (EduLearn), 2020
This current study explored twelfth-grade students' conceptions regarding electrochemistry in the Ximhungwe circuit of the Bohlabela district in the Mpumalanga province of South Africa. The sequential explanatory design was used to gather and analyse quantitative data first before gathering and analysing qualitative data for the current study. In the 2015 academic year, a sample of 10 twelfth-grade physical sciences students from four intact science public high schools was conveniently selected to participate in the current study after analysing the results of the quantitative data. Thirteen questions in which at least 30% of students showed misconceptions were selected for the interview. The result of the interviews indicated that students in the experimental group (EG) had more accurate concepts related to the function of the salt bridge in galvanic cells and the concept of electrical neutrality of anodes and cathodes compared to the control group (CG). Both the EG and the CG had the same viewpoints related to oxidation numbers, electrode potential, Emf calculations, and the identity of electrodes in galvanic cells and electrolytic cells when the placement of the electrodes was altered. However, students in both groups had limited knowledge about electrolytic cells, although the CG had more limited comprehension. It was recommended that educators teach concepts as much as they teach algorithms.
Prospective teachers’ conceptual understanding of electrochemistry: Galvanic and electrolytic cells
2003
This study investigated prospective chemistry teachers' conceptual difficulties in understanding basic aspects of electrochemistry related to galvanic and electrolytic cells. It was conducted with ninety-two prospective teachers who were students in the final year class at Marmara University, Atatürk Faculty of Education and had received both classroom and laboratory instruction on electrochemistry for about three and a half months (3 hours per week for both classroom and laboratory instruction). Fifteen volunteers from among the group were first interviewed for about 40-45 minutes. After the interviews, a test of 27 multiple-choice questions, consisting of assertion-reason statements and a set of alternative answers, was administered to all subjects. This study was able to identify new electrochemical misconceptions as well as some of those previously reported. The results show that students from different countries and different levels of electrochemistry study have similar difficulties and suggest that concepts are presented to them poorly. It also discusses some of the possible origins of these misconceptions.
Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 1992
This research investigated students' understanding of electrochemistry following a 7-9week course of instruction. A list of conceptual and propositional knowledge statements was formulated, and this provided the framework for semistructured interviews that were conducted with 32 students in their final year of high school chemistry, following instruction in electrochemistry. Three misconceptions identified in this study and five which have been reported earlier are incorporated into an alternative framework about electric current. The framework is grounded 0
Conceptual Difficulties of Secondary School Students in Electrochemistry
Asian Social Science, 2014
This study designed primarily to explore conceptual difficulties of secondary school students to understand the basic features of the concept of electrochemistry like redox reactions, galvanic and electrolytic cells. Furthermore, the factors that cause the conceptual difficulties of secondary school students in electrochemistry also investigated. Mixed method research design adopted to achieve the objectives of the current study. Three (3) government secondary schools selected by using the cluster random sampling technique within Bahawalpur City of Pakistan. Then 144 chemistry students of IX class purposively selected as sample of the study. Conceptual difficulties of secondary school students in electrochemistry investigated by developing a special test instrument tagged as Test designed to measure the Conceptual Difficulties in Electrochemistry (TCDE). Eminent experts of chemistry education validated TCDE. A pilot test established to find its reliability by test re-tests method and the correlation coefficient (r) was 0.96. The Cronbach alpha coefficient also calculated to measure the internal consistency of instrument through SPSS, and its value was 0.87. Thirty students selected purposively based on the result of TCDE for semi-structured interview. The result showed that 67% of the concept-based items designed in electrochemistry were difficult to understand by secondary school students. Poor background of knowledge, absence of teaching aids, and misunderstanding of language caused conceptual difficulty in comprehension. The findings suggested some recommendations to expedite better understanding of the chemistry students.
2001
2.1 An overview of the students' problems and understanding on different aspects of electrochemistry 2.2 Reasons for students' errors and misconceptions in electrochemistry 2.3 A simple explanation of the basic function of a Galvanic electrochemical cell 2.3.1 Oxidation and Reduction 2.3.2 The salt bridge 2.3.3 Electrical changes 2.4 Implications for this dissertation PART B : THE COMPARITIVE TEACHING OF STUDENTS AS GROUPS, PAIRS OR INDIVIDUALS 2.5 An overview of research on the comparative teaching of students in groups, in pairs, and as individuals 2.6 Cooperative learning 2. 7 Gayford's Theory 2. 7.1 Group solving approach 2.7.2 Leadership within study groups 2. 7. 3 Eight skills emerging from discussion-based learning in
Pre-service science teachers’s conceptual understandings of electrochemistry
African Journal of Chemical Education, 2021
This research explored pre-service science educators' comprehension regarding the concepts of galvanic cells, electrode potentials, and electrolytic cells in electrochemistry. A sample of 64 first year trainee science educators selected from the Department of Teacher Education at the University of Ghana was strategically chosen to take part in this investigation in the 2018/2019 academic year. In this study, a pre-test / post-test quasi-experimental framework was adopted to determine how "conceptual change texts" (CCTs) would affect the performance of pre-service science educators in electrochemistry. A two-tier 10 multiple-choice questions (MCQs) termed "electrochemistry concept test" (ECT) was given to them. Results showed that they had difficulties interpreting electrolytic cell-related concepts and most could not differentiate electrolytic cells from galvanic cells. The achievement of learners instructed utilising the Lecture method (LM) was lower than those instructed with the CCTs when a post hoc analysis with a Bonferroni adjustment on the ECT was conducted as a follow up to the one-way between-group analysis of variance, ANCOVA. The study offers comparative data on the importance of meaningful learning for enhancing the conception of electrochemistry by learners. The findings suggest that the CCTs in the experimental group might have caused an increase in pre-service science instructors' intellectual achievement.
This study aimed to develop the small-scale experiments involving electrochemistry and the galvanic cell model kit featuring sub-microscopic level. The small-scale experiments in conjunction with the model kit were implemented based on 5E inquiry learning approach to enhance students’ conceptual understanding of electrochemistry. The research tools consisted of 1) four small-scale experiments involving electrochemistry, which were oxidation and reduction reactions, galvanic cells, cathodic protection of iron nails, and connecting batteries in series, and 2) the galvanic cell model kit with ability to generate various galvanic cells. The data collecting tools included 1) a conceptual test of electrochemistry and 2) the mental model drawing of a galvanic cell. Thirty-four grade 12 students participated in the series of four 5E learning activities for a total of 10 hours. Paired samples T-test analysis revealed that the mean scores of the post-conceptual test (mean 36.63, SD 7.69) was statistically higher than that of the pre-conceptual test (mean 21.51, SD 6.83) at the significance level of 0.05. In addition, the mean scores of the post-mental models in both the macroscopic (mean 3.56, SD 1.30) and sub-microscopic features (mean 5.98, SD 2.93) were statistically higher than those of the pre-mental models (mean 1.85, SD 1.11 and mean 2.20, SD 2.45) at the significance level of 0.05. Prior to intervention, most students were in the categories of less correct conceptions, Partial Understanding with Specific Misunderstanding (PMU) to No Understanding (NU). However, after the intervention, they moved to the categories of more correct conceptions, Partial Understanding (PU) to Sound Understanding (SU). This indicated that this intervention can enhance students' conceptual understanding of electrochemistry and mental models of galvanic cells.
European Journal of STEM Education, 2018
This paper is part of a larger study that investigated the ‘Effectiveness of collaboration on low and high achieving school students’ comprehension of electrochemistry in South Africa’. The study occurred in the Ximhungwe circuit of the Bohlabela district in the Mpumalanga province of South Africa. The theoretical framework for this study was based on Vygotsky‘s social constructivism theory, which he defines as ‘a sociological theory of knowledge that applies the general philosophy of constructivism into social settings’. A sample of 47 12th grade physical sciences students from two public schools (one of the schools is high achieving and the other is low achieving) in the circuit was purposively selected to participate in the study. Students were given electrochemistry concept test (ECT) as pre-test and post-test. Results from mean and standard deviation, and one-way between group analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) showed that high achieving school (HAS) students taught with the conceptual change teaching strategy (CCTS), specifically collaboration had significantly better acquisition of scientific conceptions related to electrochemistry than low achieving school (LAS) students, also taught with CCTS. Analysis from a scatterplot of post-test against pre-test grouped on type of school showed a linear correlation between pre-test and post-test scores for each intervention type, which indicated that there was no interaction effect. The study has shown that collaboration contribute to meaningful learning, which inadvertently improves students’ comprehension and consequent achievement in electrochemistry concepts but more positive for students from high achieving schools.
2016
This paper is part of a larger study to investigate ‘The impact of a constructivist approach to learning on physical sciences students’ comprehension of electrochemistry concepts’ in the Ximhungwe circuit of the Bohlabela district in the Mpumalanga province of South Africa. The study explored the impact of using a constructivist type of teaching intervention – collaboration combined with conceptual change texts, otherwise called conceptual change teaching strategy (CCTS) on students in high achieving schools (HAS) in their comprehension of electrochemistry concepts. The study utilized non-equivalent pretest and posttest control group quasi-experimental research design . The theoretical framework for this study was based on Vygotsky’s social constructivism theory, which he defines as a sociological theory of knowledge that applies the general philosophy of constructivism into social settings. A sample of 51 12 th grade physical sciences students from two high achieving public schools...