Students’ Conceptual Level of Understanding on Chemical Bonding

The purpose of the study was to investigate the effectiveness of conceptual change oriented instruction on students’ conceptual understanding of chemical bonding concepts. Pretest - posttest design of quasi-experimental method was used to determine the effectiveness. Traditionally developed textbook and analogies were utilized in the control group whereas conceptual change texts and Teaching-With-Analogies Model were used in the experiment group. Results revealed that conceptual change oriented instruction caused better understanding, and two modes of instruction developed similar attitude toward chemistry. Science process skill was a strong predictor in understanding, but no effect of gender difference on understanding and on students’ attitudes was found. Also, semi-structured interviews were used to examine students’ understanding in detail. 2012 IOJES. All rights reserved