Teaching Electrolysis in High School and College—A Comparative Research

Abstract

This paper presents a comparative research between high school and college students, regarding the basic concepts of electrolysis. The importance of electrolysis as a crossroad between sciences, and as essential for understanding the causes of electricity and the influence on technology, is emphasized. The results showed a significant difference between the pre-test and the post-tests. The achievements of the college students were higher than those of the high school, however some of the difficulties observed in the high school still exist to some extent in the college. This paper argues that the history of science can be a useful and fruitful inspiration to science teaching.