Abstract
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.
Highlights
Chemistry education is a comprehensive term that refers to the process of teaching and learning in chemistry subject at all educational institutions
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
The factors that cause the conceptual difficulties of secondary school students in electrochemistry investigated
Summary
Chemistry education (or chemical education) is a comprehensive term that refers to the process of teaching and learning in chemistry subject at all educational institutions. Sanger and Greenbowe (1997) replicated the study of Garnett and Treagust (1992) with college chemistry students and found similar findings with them as students had learning difficulties in galvanic, electrolytic and concentration cells. They emphasized that identifying conceptual difficulties was important to help learners understand this topic meaningfully. Research in chemistry education showed that students feel difficulty to understand the abstract natured chemistry concepts and many researches conducted in advanced countries to identify their conceptual difficulties and find out possible solutions (Nakhleh, 1992; Ogude, 1994; Ozkaya, 2002; Garnett & Treagust, 1992). In Pakistan and in many developing countries, very little research work has done in this domain; no serious attempt has made to overcome the existing problem
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