Abstract:
Abstract
Students come across with the notion of atom almost every year during their
education life. Higher conceptual understandings of atomic theories among science
teachers is of crucial importance in their understanding of physics and chemistry
courses. In this sense, the purpose of the present study is to investigate which of the
atomic theories science teachers often confuse and to discuss the possible reasons
behind the confusion of one theory with the other. This study used the
phenomenology method of qualitative research. Participants of the study were
comprised of 55 first and second year university students attending the Department of
Science Teaching during the 2015-2016 academic year. In order to discover the most
confusing atomic theories and the reasons of this confusion, students were asked to
write down the atomic theories that they often confuse with one another and the
reasons why they do so. Using content analysis, two independent coders analyzed the
collected data. The result of the analyses revealed that students mostly got confused
between Bohr’s Atomic Theory and Modern Atomic Theory. It was also found that the
underlying reasons of this confusion were that “In both theory, the protons and
neutrons are found together at the center of the atom (the nucleus) surrounded by
electrons spinning around it” and “students cannot differentiate between the concepts
of layer, orbit and shell”, and some recommendations were offered concerning the
instruction of these subjects.
Keywords: Atom, Atomic theories, Science education
