A Cross-sectional Study of the Understanding of Chemical Kinetics among Turkish Secondary and Undergraduate Students
Gultekin Cakmakci, PhD Student
Supervisors: John Leach, Jim Donnelly
School of Education, The University of Leeds, UK
This research describes a cross-sectional study which will give insights into the development of students' understanding of chemical kinetics (at key points, in relation to relevant teaching) from secondary (Grade 10) to university level (university third year), in Turkey. The study is based on the written responses given by school and undergraduate students to a series of written tasks involving concepts and phenomena in chemical kinetics. A small-scale interview study will be carried out with a number of students to obtain further information regarding students' ideas about chemical kinetics and to check for appropriate interpretation of the written responses. Moreover, in order to identify the intended development of the conceptualisation of chemical kinetics within the school and university curricula, the school science curriculum and university chemistry textbooks will be examined and interviews will be carried out with a number of teachers and lecturers. It is intended that the analysis of data will give insight into the ways in which students conceptualise chemical kinetics in these levels and that the information can be used to inform teaching interventions by highlighting possible mismatches between the objectives of the curricula and students' level of understanding in chemical kinetics at secondary and university level.
The results of the study will be added to this site throughout to the research.
Publications:
Cakmakci, G., Donnelly, J., & Leach, J. (in press). A cross-sectional study of the understanding of the relationships between concentration and reaction rate among Turkish secondary and undergraduate students. In K. Boersma & O. de Jong & H. Eijkelhof & M. Goedhart (Eds.), Research and the Quality of Science Education . Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Cakmakci, G., Donnelly, J., & Leach, J. (2004). Turkish secondary and undergraduate students' understanding of the concept of catalysis. Paper to be presented at the 18 th IUPAC International Conference on Chemical Education, Istanbul , Turkey , August 3-8, 2004 .
Cakmakci, G., Donnelly, J., & Leach, J. (2003). A cross-sectional study of the understanding of the relationships between concentration and reaction rate among Turkish secondary and undergraduate students. Paper presented at the ESERA conference, Noordwijkerhout, The Netherlands, 19-23 August 2003.
Cakmakci, G. (2004). Science Education in Turkey : A Bibliography on Teaching and Learning Science