The Logical and Psychological Structure of Physical Chemistry and Its Relevance to Graduate Students' Opinions about the Difficulties of the Major Areas of the Subject

Autor/in	Tsaparlis, Georgios
Titel	The Logical and Psychological Structure of Physical Chemistry and Its Relevance to Graduate Students' Opinions about the Difficulties of the Major Areas of the Subject
Quelle	In: Chemistry Education Research and Practice, 17 (2016) 2, S. 320-336Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	1756-1108
DOI	10.1039/c5rp00203f
Schlagwörter	Forschungsbericht; Test; Fragebogen; Chemistry; Science Instruction; Semi Structured Interviews; Test Items; Questioning Techniques; Qualitative Research; Student Attitudes; Higher Education; Graduate Students; Foreign Countries; Textbooks; Science Education; Thermodynamics; Quantum Mechanics; Greece + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Chemie; Teaching of science; Science education; Natural sciences Lessons; Naturwissenschaftlicher Unterricht; Test content; Testaufgabe; Befragungstechnik; Fragetechnik; Qualitative Forschung; Schülerverhalten; Hochschulbildung; Hochschulsystem; Hochschulwesen; Graduate Study; Student; Students; Aufbaustudium; Graduiertenstudium; Hauptstudium; Studentin; Ausland; Textbook; Text book; Schulbuch; Lehrbuch; Naturwissenschaftliche Bildung; Thermodynamik; Quantenmechanik; Griechenland
Abstract	In a previous publication, Jensen's scheme for the logical structure of chemistry was employed to identify a logical structure for physical chemistry, which was further used as a tool for analyzing the organization of twenty physical chemistry textbooks. In addition, science education research was considered for the study of the psychological structure of physical chemistry. In this companion paper, the findings are presented of a semi-structured interview study with seventeen chemistry graduates, which aimed to find out their opinion about the difficulties of the various areas of physical chemistry, their disposition towards the subject, and their explanations for the difficulties identified, and in this way to study further the psychological structure of physical chemistry. A mixture of an intensive inductive and a confirmatory data analysis was carried out that revealed ideas and trends and allowed for a reliable portrait of learners to emerge by identifying similarities and differences in the data. Students unanimously found the phenomenological subjects (classical thermodynamics, electrochemistry, chemical kinetics) easier than the submicroscopic subjects of quantum chemistry and statistical thermodynamics. The reasons invoked included that the latter subjects deal with more difficult and abstract concepts, and also their highly mathematical nature. Many students found classical thermodynamics simpler than quantum chemistry, because it "has logic", includes "tangible examples", and they had encountered related topics before (especially in high school). The findings for electrochemistry and chemical kinetics were more or less similar to those for classical thermodynamics. Implications, generalizability, and limitations of the findings and prospects for further research are discussed. (As Provided).
Anmerkungen	Royal Society of Chemistry. Thomas Graham House, Science Park, Milton Road, Cambridge, CB4 0WF, UK. Tel: +44-1223 420066; Fax: +44-1223 423623; e-mail: cerp@rsc.org; Web site: http://www.rsc.org/cerp
Begutachtung	Peer reviewed
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2020/1/01