A comparison between students' mental models of atomic structure and visulizations in textbooks for the concept of atom

Abstract

This study was designed for two major goals which are to describe students’ mental models about atom concept from 6th to 11th grade and to compare students’ mental models of atomic model with visual representations of atom in textbooks. in order to analyze the comparison of students’ mental models from their drawings and textbook visuals Chisquare analyzes were used. Descriptive statistics were also used to describe students’ mental models and textbook visual representations. The date was collected as qualitatively (Mental Model Atom Test) with 4 open ended questions including also drawings and quantitatively (Evaluation Rubric for Atomic Model Representations). The study was implemented in 2 elementary schools and 3 high schools with 180 students. in addition, 525 visuals from the Ministry of Education textbooks were evaluated in the study. The results indicated that Bohr’s Atomic Model were seen as the most frequent model in both the student’ drawings and textbook atom visuals. The consistency with textbook visuals and students’ drawings were not established statistically because of the 6th grade students and 10th grade students’ drawings. The results obtained by qualitatively can show that motion was not seen frequently in students’ drawings similarly textbooks visuals. Finally, the results stated that students are very stable to draw their previous model even though they can encounter with the new atom model.