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Chemical Misconceptions
Mary 6. Nakhleh
Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907
Many students at all levels struggle to learn chemistry, integrated cognitive structures of chemical knowledge.
but are often unsuccessful. Diswvering the reasons has The information students use to wnstruct their concepts
been the target of many studies. One possible answer that comes from two sources: public knowledge, as presented in
is beginning to emerge is that many students are not con- texts and lectures; and informal prior knowledge from ev-
structing appropriate understandings of fundamental ewday experiences, parents, peers, commercial products,
chemical concepts from the very beginning of their studies and the common meanings of scientific terms (41.
(I).Therefore, they cannot fully understand the more ad-
vanced concepts that build upon the fundamentals. Misconceptions
In this article, I first present a cognitive model of learn-
ing chemistry. Then I discuss students' chemical miscon- Since students do build their own wnce~ts.their con-
ceptions (their inappropriate understandings) in terms of structions of a chemical concept sometimes h&r from the
a fundamental wncept-the particulate, kinetic nature of one that the instructor holds and has trled to oresent. Gar-
matter. Finally, the implications of these findings for in- nett et al. (5)state that these different wncepts have been
struction are considered. variously described by different researchers as precoucep-
tions (6), misconceptions (6), alternative frameworks (71,
A Cognitive Model of Learning children's science (a), and students' descriptive and ex-
planatory systems (9).
Research in students'conceptual knowledge of chemistry
is based on a model of learning in which students construct In this paper the term "misconception" means any con-
their own concepts (2.3). According to the cognitive model cept that differs from the commonly accepted scientific un-
of learning, during instruction learners generate their own derstanding of the term. Once integrated into a student's
meaning based on their background, attitudes, abilities, cognitive structure, these misconceptions interfere with
and experience. subsequent learning. The student is then left to connect
new information into a cognitive structure that already
The Learning Cycle holds inappropriate
.. . knowledge. Thus, the new information
cannot be connected appropriately totheir cognitive struc-
Learners selectively attend to the flow of information ture, and weak understandinm - or misunderstandings . of
presented, and their prewnceptions determine the infor- the concept will occur.
mation to which they pay attention. Then the brain ac-
tively interprets this selected information and draws infer- Current Work on Chemical Misconceptions
ences based on i t s stored information. The newly Most of the work that has been done on misconceptions
generated meanings are then actively linked to the learn- in chemistry was done relatively recently-in the 1980's.
er's prior knowledge base. Misconceptions in physics and biology have been more in-
Thus, learning is viewed as a cyclical process. First, the tensively studied. Thus, misconceptions in chemistry rep-
new information is compared to prior knowledge. Then it resents a fertile field for investigation.
is fed back into that same knowledge base. This article synthesizes recent findings about the chem-
Cognitive Structures ical misconceptions of students from the elementary and
middle school level through the undergraduate level. Most
Thus, acwrding to the wgnitive model, students build of the misconceptions that have been identified reveal a
sensible and coherent understandings of the events and weak understanding of the currently accepted model of
phenomena in their world from their own point of view (3). matter. In this model, matter is composed of small, mobile
In this paper, these coherent understandings are referred particles such as atoms, molecules, and ions. Thus, the
to as cognitive structures (4). Since these coherent under- particulate and kinetic aspects of the current model of
standings are in place, words such as "atom" and "nentral- matter are used as a framework for presenting the findings
ization" are actually labels that stand for elaborated cogni- of the studies.
tive structures stored in the brain (3). Although this description of the cognitive model of learn-
ingis brief, it can be seen that this model is a powerful tool
Concepts and Propositions that can aid in developing and understanding cognitive
These elaborated cognitive structures are themselves structures. This model is a part of Bodner's theory of con-
composed of interrelated wncepts. Each concept itself is structivism that is dealt with in more detail in ref 10 than
formed by a linked set of simple, declarative statements is possible in this article.
called propositions that represent the body of knowledge
the student possesses about that concept (4).An example Student Conceptions of the Particulate Nature of Matter
of a proposition is the statement "An atom contains a nu- Students of all ages seem to have trouble understanding
cleus." and using the scientifically accepted model that matter is
Concepts, therefore, are considered to be the set of prop- made of discrete particles that are in constant motion and
ositions that a person uses to infer meaning for a particu- have empty space between them (11, 12). Indeed, an ac-
lar topic, such as the nucleus of an atom. These wncepts ceptable concept of the particulate nature of matter lays
are then linked with the students' other concepts to form the foundation for understanding many chemical concepts: