Dr Yrd Doç

Fatma Ağgül Yalçin

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Ağgül Yalçın / TUSED / 8(3) 2011  173 
 
 
 
 
Investigation of the Change of Science Teacher Candidates’ 
Misconceptions of Acids-Bases with respect to Grade Level 
 
Fatma AĞGÜL YALÇIN1

 
1
Yrd.Doç.
 
Dr., Ağrı Ġbrahim Çeçen University, Faculty of Education, Ağrı-TURKEY 
Received: 03.08.2010  Revised: 22.01.2011 Accepted: 28.03.2011 
The original language of article is Turkish (v.8, n.3, September 2011, pp.161-172) 
 
Key Words: Misconception; Acid-Base Misconception; Chemistry Education; Acids-Bases. 
 
SYNOPSIS 
INTRODUCTION 
For an effective science education, it is very important that basic science concepts are 
taught as fully and accurately during the instruction. One of the main goals of science 
education is to eliminate students’ difficulties in science learning and understanding 
(Köseoğlu, Budak & Kavak, 2002). Among natural sciences, chemistry is one of the fields in 
which students have learning difficulties because it contains many abstract concepts. The 
main reason for students’ chemistry course failure of at different levels is that students’ 
insufficient and lack of conceptual understanding in the basic chemistry concepts and, 
depending on this, do not understand higher-level information in next levels (Nakhleh, 1992). 
Therefore, it is very crucial for students to learn conceptually chemistry subjects. In the 
literature, there is a number of studies of acid-bases on different learning levels (Ross & 
Munby, 1991; Nakhleh & Krajcik, 1994; Schmidt, 1991). When the studies have been 
examined, it is understood that they are the ones that aims usually either to identify the current 
misconceptions of students or to overcome existing ones by using a variety of techniques. 
However, in literature, no study was known the change of these misconceptions with respect 
to level by identifying students' misconceptions about acid-base.    
 
PURPOSE OF THE STUDY 
The purpose of this study is to identify science teacher candidates’ misconceptions about 
acid-base and to investigate the change of the misconceptions according to their grade level.  
 
                                                 

  Corresponding Author email: fatma_akgul@yahoo.com.tr       © ISSN:1304-6020 
TÜRK FEN EĞİTİMİ DERGİSİ 
Yıl 8, Sayı 3, Eylül 2011 
Journal of 
TURKISH SCIENCE EDUCATION 
Volume 8, Issue 3, September 2011 
http://www.tused.org 
 
 
Ağgül Yalçın / TUSED / 8(3) 2011  174 
METHODOLOGY 
In this study,  survey method was used. The sample consisted of 138 science teacher 
training students in Bayburt education faculty, Bayburt University in second semester of 2010 
year. In science teacher training program, the first-year general chemistry and general 
chemistry labs (I-II) (4 hours per week), and in the second year, analytical chemistry and 
organic chemistry courses (2 hours per week) are taught. In addition, special topics in 
chemistry course and a variety of laboratory applications are among other courses related to 
chemistry included in the program. Chemistry courses are taught considering the traditional 
teacher-centered approach. As data collection tool, a multiple-choice test with 13-items, 
including the misconception issue of acid-base subjects, was used. The test was administered 
another group of students at the same level and its reliability coefficient (Cronbach's alpha) 
was calculated to be 0.59 and the validity of the test has evaluated on expert opinions. One-
way analysis of variance was conducted to determine whether there are statistically significant 
differences according to means of the misconception test scores of the grades. Prior to this 
analysis, it was checked whether the assumptions of analysis of variance. In addition, 
investigating all students’ responses to the test items, the misconceptions expressions they 
hold and their percentages were determined. 
FINDINGS 
From Analysis of science teachers’ concept test scores, it was calculated the mean and 
standard deviation values. This findings showed that the average test scores at all levels were 
very low and student teachers received the average scores ranging from 2.91 to 3.61 from a 
13-item test, while the overall average was a very low value as 3.26. Skewness and kurtosis 
values were examined to check the assumption of normality before the analysis of data. This 
values ranging between -1.0 and +1.0 show that the normality assumption could be accepted. 
From Levene test results, it can be inferred that variances are homogeneous cross group. 
Conducted by considering 1-4 grade student teachers’ average mean of misconception test 
scores of students, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed that there is no 
statistically significant difference between the levels at 0.05 level of significance.   
DISCUSSION 
In this study, some following new misconceptions were identified: "as a weak acid is 
diluted, its percentage of ionization is decreases,   dilution of weak acid ionization cause no 
change in its ionization percentage”, since the dissociation constant will be reduced by 
dilution of a weak acid, its percentage of ionization also is reduced, “acid and bases give 
neutralization reaction only if their concentrations are equal to each other". It was found some 
misconceptions vary considerably according to grade levels. The misconception "as a weak 
acid is diluted, since its dissociation constant will be reduced, so the percentage of ionization 
also decreases” are almost 30% in first, second and third levels. In fourth grade, this 
proportion raised to 46%. The misconception “pH is a measure of acidity only" is shared in 
level of 44%, whereas, in the fourth grade this view was founded is in proportion of relatively 
low (29%). It was observed that   the percentage of the misconception “Acids and bases 
neutralize only if they are in equal concentrations" in third grade in comparison with other 
levels is quite low (36%). again one of the interesting finding is that the misconception “as a 
weak acid is diluted, its ionization percentage is reduced," is shared mostly by all levels. 
Moreover, while first, second and third grades exhibit the misconception “ when a weak acid 
and strong base solution at equal volume and concentrations are mixed,  a neutral solution will 
appear” in lowest rate, fourth grades carry the misconception “ the condition to be an acid of a 
substance is its having  H atom in the structure” in the lowest rate. The similar situation is 
 
Ağgül Yalçın / TUSED / 8(3) 2011  175 
valid for the misconceptions “concentrated base solution is stronger than diluted one”, all 
substances that include H atom is acid”, when a weak acid and strong bases are mixed at equal 
volume and concentrations, since acid is weak, neutralization will not completely occur” and” 
wrong microscopic presentation of weak and strong acid”. As shown by analysis of variance, 
there is no a statistically significant difference between classes in terms of misconceptions of 
acid-base subject. Though  these students  took intensive chemistry courses in first years, high 
misconception ratio in upper classes, even it is interesting that increasing rate of  some 
misconceptions, such as  "as a weak acid is diluted, because its acidity constant will be 
reduced, the percentage of ionization also decreases" and " and “acidity increases with 
increasing pH”, increase, as grade increase. In chemistry courses, when considered the 
traditional teacher-centered teaching are adopted, it can be thought as an indicator of the 
courses. Like mentioned in the related literature (Bradley & Mosimege, 1998; Üce & 
Sarıçayır, 2002), factors such as, students' prior knowledge, textbooks, teaching methods, and 
not introducing subject issue and concepts in chemistry classes in relation to each other are 
thought to be among the possible causes of these misconceptions. 
RESULTS and RECOMMENDATIONS 
In conclusion, the findings of the study performed to determine whether the students' 
misconceptions about acid-bases show the differences at different levels suggested no 
significant difference between grade levels and the misconceptions are shared high rates of up 
to 80% by the student teachers. This imply, despite the lack of students' conceptual 
understanding, they become successful in the chemistry courses. In order to overcome  
misconceptions and to provide meaningful learning , it is important teaching the courses in 
center of  misconceptions, determining misconceptions probing students’ previous knowledge 
of topics prior to lessons, using appropriate teaching methods (i.e. conceptual change texts, 
concept maps) and alternative measurement and assessment methods (for example, structured 
grid, diagnostic branched tree. It is clear that this study in the acid-base subject, one of the 
important topics of chemistry curriculum, should be repeated in other topics and levels. 
 
REFERENCES 
Bradley, J. D. & Mosimege, M. D. (1998). Misconceptions in acids and bases: a comparative 
study of student teachers with different chemistry backgrounds. South African Journal of 
Chemistry, 51(3), 137-145. 
Köseoğlu, F., Budak, E. & Kavak, N. (2002). Yapılandırıcı öğrenme teorisine dayanan ders 
materyali–öğretmen adaylarına asit-baz konusu ile ilgili kavramların öğretilmesi. ODTÜ 
Eğitim Fakültesi V. Fen Bilimleri ve Matematik Kongresi, 16-18 Eylül 2002, Ankara. 
Nakhleh M.B. & Krajcik, J.S. (1994). Influence of levels of information as presented by 
different technologies on students understanding of acid, base, and pH concepts. Journal 
of Research in Science Teaching, 34(10), 1077-1096. 
Nakhleh, M. B., (1992). Why some students don’t learn chemistry. Journal of Chemical 
Education, 69(3), 191-195.  
Ross, B. & Munby, H. (1991). Concept mapping and misconceptions: a study of high-school 
students’ understanding of acids and bases. International Journal of Science Education, 
13(1), 11-23.  
Schmidt, H.J.(1991). A label as a hidden persuader: chemists’ neutralization concept, 
International Journal of Science Education, 13(4), 459 – 471. 
Üce, M. & Sarıçayır, H. (2002). Üniversite 1. sınıf genel kimya dersinde asit baz konusunun 
öğretiminde kavramsal değişim metinleri ve kavram haritalarının kullanılması. M.Ü. 
Atatürk Eğitim Fakültesi Eğitim Bilimleri Dergisi, 16, 163-170. 


The original language of article is Turkish

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The original language of article is Turkish

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