Evaluation of High School Students' Mental Model About Aromatic Hydrocarbon and Its Teaching Implications
YANG Nan-Nan1, YAN Chun-Geng2, BAI Jie3, ZHANG Cong-Jie1, ZHANG Hui-Ying4, ZHOU Qing1**
1. School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi'an 710119, China;
2. Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an 710072, China;
3. Yulin Middle School, Yulin 719000, China;
4. School of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Hanshan Normal University, Chaozhou 521041,China
Abstract The “aromatic hydrocarbon” mental model held by high school students was evaluated by a second-order paper-and-pencil test and a semi-structured interview. We mainly focus on students' non-scientific mental model about “aromatic hydrocarbons and benzene's concept/structure/chemical properties”. The research shows that students' non-scientific models about aromatic hydrocarbon include 11 species in three categories; students' imagination and construction of the spatial structure are weak; students have insufficient understanding of the influence of the interaction between groups in organic compound structures on their chemical properties, the “nature-structure” model is imperfect; the mental model of organic chemistry is not yet integrated.
YANG Nan-Nan, YAN Chun-Geng, BAI Jie, ZHANG Cong-Jie, ZHANG Hui-Ying, ZHOU Qing. Evaluation of High School Students' Mental Model About Aromatic Hydrocarbon and Its Teaching Implications[J]. Chinese Journal of Chemical Education, 2021, 42(5): 45-49.