Grade Students, Pre-service Teachers and Science Teachers' Views on the Dissolution of Salt in a Liquid

In this study, a survey was conducted of students in grades 7 through 12, student teachers enrolled in their senior year at teachers' colleges, and science teachers. Subjects were surveyed on their conceptions of phenomenon related with dissolution, saturation, and extraction. The models and analogies used by student teachers and science teachers to explain dissolution were sought. The highest percentage of students thought of dissolution as a phenomenon in which particles broke into the spaces between other particles. The models or analogies used by the highest percentage of science teachers were similar. They generally conceived of dissolution phenomenon through what we call the 'space conception'. A conception of dissolution phenomenon as 'hydration through attraction of solvent and solute' was held by more student teachers than science teachers; there were some differences, however, according to their academic background. The percentage of teachers professing this view decreased when they attempted to explain the process of extraction of matter in a solution after other matter had dissolved or after the solution was cooled, indicating that the 'hydration' conception was not firmly established in the student teachers' cognition. Therefore, it can be inferred that the conceptions of dissolution as 'hydration' were transformed into the conceptions of dissolution as 'space' after teaching dissolution phenomenon as practicing teachers. This finding should be considered in teacher-training courses.