Acid-base chemistry is a foundational concept for organic chemistry, and the complexities in teaching and learning acid-base chemistry are well documented. This study aimed to investigate post-secondary instructors' pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) for teaching acid-base chemistry in an organic chemistry context. Two groups of three graduate…

Understanding negative numbers can be challenging for many students, as these concepts may seem less tangible than counting objects, which are commonly represented by positive numbers. In addition, the multiplication of two negative numbers resulting in a positive might appear inconsistent and puzzling to young learners who are used to seeing the…

One reason for the widespread use of the energy concept across the sciences is that energy analysis can be used to interpret the behavior of systems even if one does not know the particular mechanisms that underlie the observed behavior. By providing an approach to interpreting unfamiliar phenomena, energy provides a lens on phenomena that can set…

Kinetic energy is usually the entry point for the study of energy in physics and is often perceived as unproblematic. We present evidence, however, that some learners who seem to have accepted the concept, from elementary school students to college physics majors and in-service teachers, nevertheless do not consistently attribute kinetic energy to…

The Force Concept Inventory (FCI) is a popular multiple-choice instrument used to measure a student's conceptual understanding of Newtonian mechanics. Recently, a network analytic technique called module analysis has been used to identify responses to the FCI and other conceptual instruments that are preferentially selected together by students;…

This lesson focuses specifically on teaching concepts of speed and its impact on energy, as well as providing a basic introduction to potential and kinetic energy to fourth-grade students. "Next Generation Science Standards" ("NGSS") 4-PS3-1 states that students should be able "to use evidence to construct an explanation…

Two generative approaches to reaction mechanism instruction for novice students were compared to lecture instruction. In both approaches, students were coached to propose selected reaction mechanisms based on prior knowledge. New instructional methods were correlated with increased skill in representations of electron movements and other gains.…

Introductory science courses can be a struggle for instructors and students not only because of the challenging nature of the material, but also due to differences in the background knowledge of students. Provision of pre-lecture resources reviewing or introducing key concepts is recommended to support diverse students. In this paper, we describe…

Concepts can be examined in two groups as abstract and concrete ones. While concrete concepts are improved as a result of students' experiences, it is considerably challenging for students to perceive abstract concepts. Since chemistry includes abstract concepts largely, it is considered to be hard to comprehend as a class by students. In fact,…

Quantum mechanics (QM) has become part of many secondary school curricula. These curricula often do not include the mathematical tools for a formal, mathematical introduction of QM. QM therefore needs to be taught at a more conceptual level, but making secondary school students understand counterintuitive QM concepts without introducing…

Teachers' pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) has the potential to influence lesson planning, teaching and students' academic performance in science. Since PCK is embodied in lesson planning (as planned PCK), this study employed the multiple-case design to describe in-depth the biology teachers' profiles of planned topic-specific PCK (plTSPCK) for…

Feedback loop reasoning is an essential part of systems thinking, which includes the analysis and description of system behaviour and regulative measures. In feedback loops, every change can simultaneously represent a cause and an effect. Research on reasoning in feedback loops is limited to investigating students' existing mental models. This…

There is widespread evidence showing that concept maps are effective for learning. However, little is known about the effects of various concept map activities. We conducted an experiment to examine the comparative effectiveness of three concept map activities: (1) translating a complete map to a paragraph format; (2) filling in concepts in a…

The prime purpose of this investigation was to improve Pre-service Chemistry Teachers (PCTs) understanding of reaction related concepts of Aliphatic Hydrocarbons (AHCs). Participants were 12 PCTs selected from a pool of 87 second year PCTs taking Introductory Organic Chemistry course in Arbaminch college of Teachers Education, Southern Nations,…

This study investigated the effect of visual anthropomorphic stories on students' understanding of the particulate nature of matter and their level of anthropomorphic discourse. This study employed a quasi-experimental research design with pretest and posttest control groups. Science activities supported by visual anthropomorphic stories were…