Consistency and Inconsistency in A Level Students’ Understandings of a Number of Chemical Reactions

Abstract

Research to date on students’ consistency of ideas in the scientific disciplines has produced conflicting results. Whilst some researchers have produced evidence showing that pupils were fairly consistent in the way they used their conceptions, others have openly questioned whether pupils’ scientific concepts are genuinely ‘theory like’. The current paper reports from a broad study of A level students’ conceptions of some common chemical reactions. In general it was found that students were applying frameworks consistently across groups of events that they perceived to be similar. What was found to be lacking was the scientist's view of all the reactions being regarded as realisations of the same underlying conceptual model.