A Comparison of Middle and High School Students' Conceptual Understanding in Stoichiometry and Gas State

화학양론과 기체 상태에 대한 중.고등학생의 개념 이해도 비교

Middle and high school students' conceptual understanding about stoichiometry, gas laws, and diffusion was compared with essay type test and multiple choice test. Whereas achievement of high school students was higher in stoichiometry, that of middle school students who were expected to go to high schools was higher in gas laws and diffusion. When students' achievement was compared to that of American college students, Korean students' achievement was higher in stoichiometry and was similar in gas laws. These results indicate that algorithmic problem solving is more emphasized than conceptual understanding in high schools and that quantitative aspects focused in chemistry education are not helpful in concept understanding. Nevertheless relatively smaller difference between concept understanding and algorithmic problem solving for high school students in this study seems to be from concept learning in middle schools.