• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.56 no.1
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• pp.144-158
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• 2012

In this study, science teachers' and students' perceptions were searched on lectures and experiment of law of definite proportion in middle school science classes. For this study, the three teachers' lessons were observed and recorded, following interviews related to teachers' perceptions on the lessons and experiments. Also, We analyzed students' science scores, cognitive levels, science attitude, experimental reports, etc. According to the results, the three teachers had different focuses in the lectures. Chemistry teachers accentuated calculation of proportions and application rather than basic conceptions. But the students could not understand basic conceptions properly. The teachers spend long time to explain experimental procedures by assuming a low performance level of students in experimental classes. And the teachers had negative perceptions about error of results. The students could not understand the experiment results well, tried to manipulate data artificially, and had negative perceptions about error of results like the teachers. We suggested that these problems might be solved by changing teachers' perceptions on school science lectures and experiments.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.54 no.3
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• pp.338-349
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• 2010

This study compared the instruction effectiveness between experiments of precipitation and a ball & stick model related to the 'Law of Definite Proportions' of 9th grade science in this study. The subjects were 250 students in the 9th grade. They were divided into two groups, an experimental group and a model group. The results showed that the ratio of thought in which the elements were divided in the solutions and the ratio of thought in which a new compound was created when the two solutions were mixed were higher in the precipitation experiment group than in the model group. The two groups were not different in terms of the ratio of thought related to the reason for the creation of the precipitate. The ratio of thought pertaining to incorrect answers was high, implying that the two strategies were not effective in correcting students' thoughts. However, the ratio of finding patterns from the measuring data in the model group was higher than in the experimental group. However, the ratios of 'definite proportions' inference in the bonding of the reactants were similar in the two groups. From these data, we concluded that the inference of the 'Law of definite proportion' from experiments or models was not suitable for middle school students.