An investigation into chemical engineering students' understanding of the mole and the use of concrete activities to promote conceptual change

First year chemical engineering students' understanding of the mole was investigated and an intervention designed to improve their grasp of this fundamental concept. Students' ideas were initially elicited in a series of group interviews. These findings were checked against a multiple- cho...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inInternational journal of science education Vol. 21; no. 12; pp. 1237 - 1249
Main Authors Case, Jennifer M, Fraser, Duncan M
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published London Taylor & Francis Group 01.12.1999
Taylor & Francis
Subjects
Chemie
Chemistry
Conceptual Change
Curriculum subjects: programmes and methods
Educational sciences
Engineering Education
Exact and natural sciences
Higher Education
Learning Processes
Misconceptions
Mole (Chemical)
Schüler
Science Education
Scientific Concepts
Teaching Methods
Vorstellung (Psy)
South Africa
Conceptualization
Engineering
Chemistry
Survey
Higher Education
Research Method
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Summary:First year chemical engineering students' understanding of the mole was investigated and an intervention designed to improve their grasp of this fundamental concept. Students' ideas were initially elicited in a series of group interviews. These findings were checked against a multiple- choice test which was developed and administered to the whole class. The intervention comprised a series of activities with a focus on 'tangible objects' which could provide students with a visual/experiential point of reference. Both qualitative and quantitative assessments indicated a strong positive effect of the intervention. Tis approach now forms part of the first year curriculum at the University of Cape Town. Although these students' problems were focused on the concepts of gmol, lbmol, and kmol, the misconceptions identified were found to link strongly to those previosly reported in the literature for gmol, which suggests a broad applicability of the results obtained.
ISSN:0950-0693
1464-5289
DOI:10.1080/095006999290048