The redox reaction is a core concept of upper-secondary school chemistry curriculum. Accurate diagnosis of students' conceptual understanding of the redox reaction from a cognitive structure perspective is critical for enhancing their understanding of chemical concepts. This study utilized Bayesian networks to investigate the cognitive structures…

The aim of the study was to investigate the effect of the Common Knowledge Construction Model (CKCM) on 10th-grade students' conceptual understanding of the buoyancy and density of liquids topic. Within a pre-experimental (one group pre-test/post-test) research design, this study was conducted with 22 of 10th-grade students. To collect data, the…

The purpose of this study was to describe the effect of multiple knowledge representations of physical and chemical changes on the development of primary pre-service teachers' cognitive structures. The study took place in an introductory general chemistry laboratory course in a four-year teacher education program. Multiple knowledge…

Light is used ubiquitously across science and engineering to explore, characterise, understand matter, and catalyse processes. Relative to its utility in science and engineering, very little research has been conducted on how students develop an understanding of light-matter interactions, especially at the quantum level, which is necessary to…

Chemistry is traditionally perceived as difficult to comprehend. Its mastery requires that a variety of concepts be linked to form an organized knowledge system. The connections need to be made not only between the concepts associated with the macroscopic level of the chemistry triplet but also between the submicroscopic and symbolic levels. Many…

In this research word association test was used to explore the cognitive structure of Pre-service science teachers about biological energy metabolism. The participant group constitutes 67 Preservice students at a university in Black Sea Region of Turkey. Ten key concepts in General Biology course were given as a stimulating word and a mind map was…

Current research in physics shows that pre-service teachers have poor content knowledge in vector-kinematics. This study describes the types of categories of conceptions pre-service teachers display in vector-kinematics. Descriptive and interpretive qualitative research was conducted in which the data were concept maps from 28 third-year…

Considerable debate exists among discipline-based astronomy education researchers about how students change their perceptions in science and astronomy. The study questioned the development of astronomical models among students in institutions of higher education by examining how college students change their initial conceptual frameworks and…

Students' mental models of diffusion in a gas phase solution were studied through the use of the Structure and Motion of Matter (SAMM) survey. This survey permits identification of categories of ways students think about the structure of the gaseous solute and solvent, the origin of motion of gas particles, and trajectories of solute particles in…

Photosynthesis is the most important biochemical process on Earth. Most living beings depend on it directly or indirectly. Knowledge about photosynthesis enables us to understand how the world functions as an ecosystem and how photosynthesis acts as a bridge between the non-living and living worlds. It is, therefore, understandable that…

The current study aims to explore how children explain the concepts of biology and how biological knowledge develops across ages by focusing on the structure and functions of the digestive system. The study was conducted with 60 children. The data were collected through the interviews conducted within a think-aloud protocol. The interview data…

The current study aims to determine biology student teachers' cognitive structure on the concept of "living thing" through revealing their conceptual framework. Qualitative research method was applied in this study. The data were collected from 44 biology student teachers. A free word association test was used as a data collection…

In this study, we investigated whether concept maps were used as often and as effectively in elementary science and technology classrooms as recommended by the National Ministry of Education (MEB) in the new curricula in Turkey. In the new elementary science and technology curricula, the MEB provides a general concept map for each unit. We used…

The development of rich, reliable, and robust measures of the composition, structure, and stability of student thinking about core scientific ideas (such as natural selection) remains a complex challenge facing science educators. In their recent article (Nehm & Schonfeld 2008), the authors explored the strengths, weaknesses, and insights provided…

The modeling instruction pedagogy for the teaching of physics has been proven to be quite effective at increasing the conceptual understanding and problem-solving abilities of students to a much greater extent than that of nonmodeling students. Little research has been conducted concerning the cognitive and metacognitive skills that modeling…