Diagnostic appraisal of grade 12 students' understanding of reaction kinetics

• Published in: Chemistry Education Research and Practice Vol. 17; no. 4; pp. 1114 - 1126
• Main Authors: Yan, Yaw Kai, Subramaniam, R
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Royal Society of Chemistry 01.01.2016
• Subjects: Appraisals; Diagnostic systems; Difficulty Level; Education; Foreign Countries; Format; Grade 12; Graphs; Kinetics; Knowledge Level; Motion; Origins; Psychometrics; Reaction kinetics; Science Tests; Scientific Concepts; Scores; Singapore; Students; Test Construction; Utilities; Singapore
• ISSN: 1109-4028; 1756-1108; 1756-1108
• DOI: 10.1039/c6rp00168h

The study explored grade 12 students' understanding of reaction kinetics, a topic which has not been extensively explored in the chemistry education literature at this level. A 3-tier diagnostic instrument with 11 questions was developed - this format is of very recent origin and has been the subject of only a handful of studies. The findings reveal that reaction kinetics is not an easy topic for the students to understand. A total of 23 alternative conceptions (ACs) as well as some indication of their strengths and other confidence-related measures have been documented for the students ( N = 137) - most of these ACs have not been reported before. When the overall scores of the students in the diagnostic test are ranked, it was found that there are a number of differences in the ACs held by students in the upper and lower 25% of the sample. While most of the ACs held by these groups are common to the overall sample, a number of these are not found in the overall sample. The findings further underscore the diagnostic utility of the 3-tier format. Some implications of the findings are discussed.