Students' misconceptions—Looking for a pattern

Abstract This article describes four chemical terms that students with well‐considered reasons use in a way that is not accepted in chemistry. The studies identified students' misconceptions using multiple‐choice tests. The distractors of the questions were keyed to the errors observed in a pilot study. From 4300–7500 German senior high school students completed the written tests. They were asked to select an option and give reasons for their answers. Furthermore, discussions were conducted with additional groups of students. It emerged that students limit the term isomerism to compounds of the same class. This idea, however, is not compatible with the modern definition of isomerism. Yet, in practice, only isomers belonging to the same class of compounds are dealt with. Students apparently conclude from the syllable “ox” in redox that oxygen is involved in all redox reactions. Oxygen only had a predominant position in the old oxidation concept. This concept has, however, been extended and oxygen has lost its special position. The idea that in any reaction between an acid and a base a neutral solution is formed has been found to be quite common among students. The term neutralization, coined 300 years ago, can no longer be used in this way. However, words like neutralization or neutral seem to keep the old idea alive. Many students hold the misconception that conjugate acid‐base pairs consist of positively and negatively charged ions, which can somehow neutralize each other. The test questions developed can be easily used by teachers to find out whether the misconceptions described appear in a learning group. As it is known which misconceptions might occur teachers can reflect on how to respond to students' incorrect answers before entering the classroom. Discussions among the students have been found to be a good way of dealing with these problems. For further research the question is raised as to whether there are other concepts and terms that cause difficulties for students. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Sci Ed 81:123–135, 1997.