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Chemistry is all around us
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This project has been funded with
support from the European Commission

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TITLE OF PRODUCT:

Understanding the particulate nature of matter and its changes of state in relation to three cognitive variables

NAME OF AUTHOR(S):

Georgios Tsitsipis, Dimitrios Stamovlassis, George Papageorgiou
(Democritus University of Thrace-Department of Primary Education)

TYPE OF PRODUCT:

Paper in National Conference proceedings

LANGUAGE/S OF PRODUCT:

Greek

DESCRIPTION OF CONTENTS:

The authors of this work have examined students’ understanding of the particulate nature of matter and the changes of state in relation to three cognitive variables: logical thinking (Lth), field dependence/independence (FDI) and convergent/divergent thinking (CD). 329 students between 14-15 years old participated in this research. All three examined variables were shown to be statistically significant predictors of the students’ test scores with logical thinking being the most dominant one. More specifically it was shown that there is a minimum required level of formal operational reasoning for the students to be able to understand the particulate nature of matter and the phase changes. Interestingly, this research gives evidence that students possessing divergent thinking are more favored in understanding the specific subject, while usually scientific subjects are more popular among students with convergent thinking. Finally, field independence (ability to identify the most important information from the general context) is also a significant requirement.
Students’ individual differences have to be taken into account when studying the difficulties involved in understanding the particulate nature of mattes and phase changes and consequently of several other chemistry and science related subjects.

COMMENTS ON THIS DOCUMENT:

The results of this document are based on strict statistical analysis. People’s individual differences should be taken into account for the design of a methodological teaching approach of a scientific subject and in general for the implementation of a life long learning policy in sciences and chemistry in particular.

NAME OF COMPILER:

Dr. Dionysios Koulougliotis

NAME OF INSTITUTION:

T.E.I of Ionian Islands

ROLE:

Associate Professor