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Developmental Patterns of Students’ Understanding of Core Concepts in Secondary School Chemistry

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Book cover Engaging with Contemporary Challenges through Science Education Research

Part of the book series: Contributions from Science Education Research ((CFSE,volume 9))

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Abstract

A central goal of chemistry education is to enable students to gain a broad understanding of central chemical concepts. To support students in achieving this goal, theoretically grounded and empirically validated models of developmental trajectories are needed to inform instruction and to guide assessment. However, it is an ongoing debate how these developmental trajectories need to be formulated and how evidence to support these trajectories can be established. In a longitudinal study covering students’ understanding of three chemical concepts in grades 5 to 8 and 9 to 12, respectively, we aim to investigate how different approaches to analyse students’ responses to test items lead to diverging conclusions regarding developmental patterns across grades. Overall, students’ test scores indicate substantial learning gains from grade to grade, with small to medium effect sizes. In addition, students’ progression across grades on average follows the hierarchy of ordered levels of conceptual understanding that were used for the development of the test items. However, a more fine-grained analysis focusing on individual trajectories calls the assumption of a level-by-level development of individual students into question.

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Acknowledgement

This research was funded by the Swedish Research Council under grant number 721-2013-2180.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry Education, Leibniz Institute for Science and Mathematics Education, Kiel, Germany

    Sascha Bernholt & Lars Höft

Authors
  1. Sascha Bernholt
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  2. Lars Höft
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sascha Bernholt .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics and Astronomy “A. Righi”, Alma Mater Studiorun - University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy

    Olivia Levrini  & Giulia Tasquier  & 

  2. Department of Education, American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon

    Tamer G. Amin

  3. Department of Mathematics “Federigo Enriques”, University of Milan, Milan, Italy

    Laura Branchetti

  4. Department of Mathematics, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan, USA

    Mariana Levin

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Bernholt, S., Höft, L. (2021). Developmental Patterns of Students’ Understanding of Core Concepts in Secondary School Chemistry. In: Levrini, O., Tasquier, G., Amin, T.G., Branchetti, L., Levin, M. (eds) Engaging with Contemporary Challenges through Science Education Research. Contributions from Science Education Research, vol 9. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-74490-8_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-74490-8_9

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