The Role of Heuristics in the Reasoning Process of Pre-Service Science Teachers on the “Chemical Structure – Acidity/Basicity Relationship” Topic

Gülen Önal Karakoyun,Erol Asiltürk

doi:10.17344/acsi.2021.6666

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to examine the effects of 10 heuristics proposed by Talanquer on the reasoning processes of science teacher candidates on the "chemical structure - acidity-basicity relationship" topic. In this phenomenographic research, interviews were conducted with 30 prospective teachers enrolled in the Science Education Program, Education Faculty, Firat University in the spring semester of the 2018-2019 academic year. In the first stage of the two-stage interview, the participants were asked to rank some chemical compounds according to their increasing acidity strength, while in the second stage, they were asked to rank some chemical compounds according to their increasing basicity strength. In the interviews, participants were also asked to explain in detail the reasons for their ranking. From the answers given by the participants to the questions, six different answer patterns were obtained for acidity strength, while five different answer patterns were obtained for basicity strength. It was determined that all ten heuristics affect the reasoning of the participants, and because of the effects of heuristics, students generally use shortcut strategies instead of scientific reasoning. In addition, this study revealed that although it was not included in the model proposed by Talanquer, periodic trends heuristic also affected the reasoning of the participants on the "chemical structure - acidity/basicity relationship".

Highlights

Acid-base chemistry contains acid-base theories, auto-ionization of water, acid-base strengths, acid-base equilibriums, hydrolysis of salts, buffer solutions, acid-base reactions and acid-base titrations topics
From the answers given by the participants to the questions, six different answer patterns were obtained for acidity strength, while five different response patterns were obtained for basicity strength
This study revealed that when faced with questions about “chemical structure – acidity/basicity relationship”, pre-service science teachers rely heavily on intuitive reasoning rather than analytical thinking in decision-making processes, and students frequently use heuristics

Summary

Introduction

Acid-base chemistry contains acid-base theories, auto-ionization of water, acid-base strengths, acid-base equilibriums, hydrolysis of salts, buffer solutions, acid-base reactions and acid-base titrations topics. Acid-base chemistry, which is highly related to daily life, occupy an important place in both science and chemistry curricula Due to this importance, there are many studies in the literature on subjects such as the level of understanding of acid-base chemistry by students, the misconceptions regarding acid-base chemistry, and the effects of different teaching methods and activities on students’ understanding of acid-base chemistry. There are many studies in the literature on subjects such as the level of understanding of acid-base chemistry by students, the misconceptions regarding acid-base chemistry, and the effects of different teaching methods and activities on students’ understanding of acid-base chemistry In the literature these studies, it is reported that students’ reasoning, judgment and decision-making processes about acid-base chemistry are generally imperfect.[1,2,3]. As a result of these studies, it was revealed that some mental structures that facilitate the decision making of individuals contain various cognitive factors that restrict scientific reasoning.[8,9,10,11,12] Some of these cognitive elements include implicit assumptions,[13] core knowledge,[14] basic hypotheses and ontological beliefs,[15] intuitive rules,[16] primitive phenomenologies,[17] inductive constraints,[18] conceptual sources[19] and heuristics.[20]

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