Combination of Phenomenography with Knowledge Space Theory to study students’ thinking patterns in describing an atom

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Zoltán Tóth a and Lajos Ludányi b
aChemical Methodology Group, University of Debrecen, Debrecen, Hungary. E-mail: tothzoltandr@yahoo.com
bBerze-Nagy János High School, Gyöngyös, Hungary

Received 31st December 2006 , Accepted 21st June 2007

Abstract

This study compares Hungarian 7th to 11th graders’ and American 9th to 11th graders’ thinking patterns in describing an atom. A new evaluation method, the combination of phenomenography and knowledge space theory was used to explore students’ reasoning and to follow the change in students’ cognitive structures. According to the phenomenographic analysis of the responses, three main categories, ‘units of matter’, ‘constituents of atoms’ and ‘model of atoms’, were identified. Connections between these categories were determined by adapting Knowledge Space Theory to the hierarchy of categories. Results showed that during the instruction, the initial uniform model for representation of students’ knowledge structure became more diffuse but at the end of the instruction the organisation of the categories in students’ minds could be represented again by a single model. In the initial model, the ‘units of matter’ category was independent of the ‘constituents of atoms’ and ‘model of atoms’ categories, and the ‘model of atoms’ category was built on the category ‘constituents of atoms’. Significant change in connections among categories could be detected only in the case of Hungarian students. In the reasoning of Hungarian 11th graders, the hierarchy between ‘constituents of atoms’ and ‘model of atoms’ was reversed. [Chem. Educ. Res. Pract., 2007, 8 (3), 327-336.]