Emphasizing Multiple Levels of Representation To Enhance Students' Understandings of the Changes Occurring during Chemical Reactions

Abstract

An alternative program of instruction was implemented with 33 high-achieving Grade 9 students (15–16 years old) in Singapore that overtly focused on the use of macroscopic, submicroscopic, and symbolic representations to describe and explain the changes that occurred during the burning of metals, reactions of dilute acids, ionic precipitations, and metal ion displacement reactions. Students' understandings of the use of multiple levels of representation were evaluated at the end of nine months of instruction using a previously developed 15-item, two-tier, multiple-choice diagnostic instrument. In several instances the students displayed much better understanding of the three systems of representation than 44 students from another higher-achieving Grade 9 class who were taught with the regular instructional program that did not emphasize use of multiple levels of representation. Comparison of the mean diagnostic test scores of students from the two classes indicated that the high-achieving class in the tre...