Pre-service chemistry teachers' awareness of middle school students' misconceptions and their perceived educational needs

Abstract

In this study, we investigated pre-service chemistry teachers' awareness and perceptions of middle school students' misconceptions and their perceived educational needs. A survey was administered to 87 seniors at the department of chemistry education of five colleges of education. The instrument was consisted of a test for their awareness and perceptions of students' misconceptions on chemistry topics and an educational need test for their experiences and needs for learning them. Analyses of the results revealed that most pre-service teachers were not thoroughly aware of students' misconceptions related to the particulate nature of matter. The perceptions of a necessity of knowing misconceptions and a willingness to deal with them were positive. However there were few pre-service teachers addressing them according to the constructivism. The pre-service teachers encountered misconceptions through chemical education courses, and had difficulties in practicing teaching strategies addressing misconceptions because of limited examples of misconceptions and insufficiencies of methods/materials in teaching. They also needed lectures and practices related to students' misconceptions. Educational implications of these findings are discussed.