PRIMARY SCHOOL TEACHERS’ VIEWS ON FUNDAMENTAL CHEMICAL CONCEPTS

Abstract

An attempt is made to examine primary school teachers’ views on the composition and classification of matter. The sample was constituted of 75 teachers who work in primary schools of Thrace, Greece. Teachers were asked: a) through an open ended questionnaire to define some of the major concepts of chemistry and to correspond these concepts to specific examples; b) to draw concept maps. The concepts under study were: matter, pure substance, compound, element, mixture, solution, molecule and atom. According to the findings: a) teachers seem to be familiar with those concepts which are extensively presented in the textbooks; b) they misunderstand some concepts since they are not familiar with the language of chemistry and their thinking is being influenced by the everyday use of some terms; c) some of the concepts under study can be perceived sensory; d) some concepts are perceived in a limited way. The limited knowledge of some concepts becomes evident from the fact that teachers often fail to draw relationships between concepts. In addition, the majority of the concepts under study cannot be defined easily by the teachers and can be described only through the use of examples, whereas concepts such as molecule and atom are described with difficulty even through the use of examples. Results are further discussed with respect to their implications. [Chem. Educ. Res. Pract. Eur.: 2000, 1, 237-247]