%0 Journal Article
%T Pre-Service Chemistry Teachers¡¯ Ideas about Reaction Mechanism
%A £¿zgecan TA£¿TAN
%A Eylem YAL£¿INKAYA
%A Yezdan BOZ
%J Journal of Turkish Science Education
%D 2010
%I Ekip Ltd. Sti
%X The purpose of this study is to examine Turkish pre-service chemistry teachers¡¯ (N=49) conceptions about the reaction mechanisms for given situations. Participants¡¯ ideas were elicited through the open-ended questions and the semi-structured interviews related to the reaction mechanism. Several conceptual difficulties were exhibited by pre-service chemistry teachers. The outcomes of the study revealed that some of the prospective teachers were not aware that slow step of a reaction mechanism is the rate determining step. They also tried to explain the effect of concentration on the reaction rate by means of Le Chatelier¡¯s principle. It was also found that prospective chemistry teachers had difficulties in writing the mechanism of a reaction from a given potential energy curve. In addition to these, most of the participants could not differentiate between activated complex and reaction intermediate by using the energy values of the substances in a given graph.
%K Pre-Service Chemistry Teachers
%K Chemical Kinetics
%K Reaction Mechanism
%K Alternative Conception
%U www.tused.org