Using Simulations to Detect Difficulties in the Process of Learning “Chemical Solutions”

Diana G. Bekerman^1, , Lorena Pepa¹, Elvira Vaccaro¹, Manuel Alonso² and Lydia R. Galagovsky³

¹Departamento de Ciencias Exactas, Ciclo Básico Común, Universidad de Buenos Aires, C1405CAE, Buenos Aires, Argentina

²Departamento de Ciencias Biológicas, Ciclo Básico Común, Universidad de Buenos Aires, C1405CAE, Buenos Aires, Argentina

³Instituto Centro de Formación e Investigación en Enseñanza de las Ciencias (CEFIEC), Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires, C1428EGA, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Cite this paper

Diana G. Bekerman, Lorena Pepa, Elvira Vaccaro, Manuel Alonso and Lydia R. Galagovsky. Using Simulations to Detect Difficulties in the Process of Learning “Chemical Solutions”. American Journal of Educational Research. 2016; 4(8):608-612. doi: 10.12691/EDUCATION-4-8-5

Abstract

Using animations, visualizations and simulations is a common practice to teach chemistry. These didactic resources provide a motivational effect which in turn should improve the understanding of concepts by the students. This is effectively observed, but not all students benefit from these resources to the same extent. In this work, we use a simulation of chemical solutions and then evaluate a group of students on it. From the wrong answers we proceed to establish categories: 1) Incorrect or misguided mathematical approaches, dissociated from the chemical meaning of the question, 2) difficulties in the use of chemical syntax, 3) semantic difficulties, and 4) alternative mental models. Having identified the types of errors allows teachers to work on them in a directed manner, making possible different approaches for each category.

Keywords

simulations, chemical solutions, teaching, learning, errors

Copyright

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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