Evaluating Students' Understanding of Kinetic Particle Theory Concepts Relating to the States of Matter, Changes of State and Diffusion: A Cross-National Study

This paper reports on the understanding of three key conceptual categories relating to the kinetic particle theory: (1) intermolecular spacing in solids, liquids and gases, (2) changes of state and intermolecular forces and (3) diffusion in liquids and gases, amongst 148 high school students from Br...

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Main Authors: Treagust, David, Chandrasegaran, Arulsingam, Crowley, Julianne, Yung, B., Cheong, I., Othman, J.
Format: Journal Article
Published: National Science Council, Taiwan (Springer) 2010
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/11070
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author Treagust, David
Chandrasegaran, Arulsingam
Crowley, Julianne
Yung, B.
Cheong, I.
Othman, J.
author_facet Treagust, David
Chandrasegaran, Arulsingam
Crowley, Julianne
Yung, B.
Cheong, I.
Othman, J.
author_sort Treagust, David
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description This paper reports on the understanding of three key conceptual categories relating to the kinetic particle theory: (1) intermolecular spacing in solids, liquids and gases, (2) changes of state and intermolecular forces and (3) diffusion in liquids and gases, amongst 148 high school students from Brunei, Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore using 11 multiple-choice items that required students to provide explanations for their selection of particular responses to the items. Students’ responses to the items revealed limited understanding of the particle theory concepts, with nine alternative conceptions held by more than 10% of various samples of students. Also, 40.5–78.4%of all students indicated consistent understanding relating to the three conceptual categories based on their responses to the 11 items. However, when their explanations were taken into account, very few students displayed consistent understanding of the related concepts.
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format Journal Article
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institution Curtin University Malaysia
institution_category Local University
last_indexed 2025-11-14T06:53:25Z
publishDate 2010
publisher National Science Council, Taiwan (Springer)
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-110702017-01-30T11:22:43Z Evaluating Students' Understanding of Kinetic Particle Theory Concepts Relating to the States of Matter, Changes of State and Diffusion: A Cross-National Study Treagust, David Chandrasegaran, Arulsingam Crowley, Julianne Yung, B. Cheong, I. Othman, J. intermolecular forces changes of state diffusion intermolecular spacing kinetic particle theory alternative conceptions This paper reports on the understanding of three key conceptual categories relating to the kinetic particle theory: (1) intermolecular spacing in solids, liquids and gases, (2) changes of state and intermolecular forces and (3) diffusion in liquids and gases, amongst 148 high school students from Brunei, Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore using 11 multiple-choice items that required students to provide explanations for their selection of particular responses to the items. Students’ responses to the items revealed limited understanding of the particle theory concepts, with nine alternative conceptions held by more than 10% of various samples of students. Also, 40.5–78.4%of all students indicated consistent understanding relating to the three conceptual categories based on their responses to the 11 items. However, when their explanations were taken into account, very few students displayed consistent understanding of the related concepts. 2010 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/11070 National Science Council, Taiwan (Springer) restricted
spellingShingle intermolecular forces
changes of state
diffusion
intermolecular spacing
kinetic particle theory
alternative conceptions
Treagust, David
Chandrasegaran, Arulsingam
Crowley, Julianne
Yung, B.
Cheong, I.
Othman, J.
Evaluating Students' Understanding of Kinetic Particle Theory Concepts Relating to the States of Matter, Changes of State and Diffusion: A Cross-National Study
title Evaluating Students' Understanding of Kinetic Particle Theory Concepts Relating to the States of Matter, Changes of State and Diffusion: A Cross-National Study
title_full Evaluating Students' Understanding of Kinetic Particle Theory Concepts Relating to the States of Matter, Changes of State and Diffusion: A Cross-National Study
title_fullStr Evaluating Students' Understanding of Kinetic Particle Theory Concepts Relating to the States of Matter, Changes of State and Diffusion: A Cross-National Study
title_full_unstemmed Evaluating Students' Understanding of Kinetic Particle Theory Concepts Relating to the States of Matter, Changes of State and Diffusion: A Cross-National Study
title_short Evaluating Students' Understanding of Kinetic Particle Theory Concepts Relating to the States of Matter, Changes of State and Diffusion: A Cross-National Study
title_sort evaluating students' understanding of kinetic particle theory concepts relating to the states of matter, changes of state and diffusion: a cross-national study
topic intermolecular forces
changes of state
diffusion
intermolecular spacing
kinetic particle theory
alternative conceptions
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/11070