Students' thinking about chemical analysis: an investigation within the conceptual profile theoretical framework

Abstract

This work presents the determination of the different ways of thinking about chemical analysis that comprise the zones of a conceptual profile model of this concept. A deductive-inductive qualitative approach was adopted to analyze primary data obtained from secondary school and university students' responses to interviews related to chemical analysis. The previously suggested expanded categories of ways of thinking about chemical analysis that emerged from the study of historical and epistemological sources (sociocultural domain) as well as students' alternative ideas (ontogenetic domain) were utilized as a coding framework for the analysis of primary data obtained from students' responses (microgenetic domain). Following dialogic interaction among all three data sources, six conceptual profile zones were established: everyday analysis, alchemical analysis, empirical analysis, compositional analysis, mechanistic analysis and automated analysis.