Fourteen-year-old students' misconceptions regarding the sub-micro and symbolic levels of specific chemical concepts

Learning and presenting chemi- cal concepts at the triple level of chemical concepts provides opportunities for the de - velopment of misconceptions. The research aimed to identify potential misconceptions of chemical concepts: the states of matter, a pure substance, a mixture, an element, a compound, a physical change, and a chemical reaction at the sub-micro level when solving problems incorporating sub-microrepresentations. A total of 188 14-year old students, attending six different primary schools, participated in the re - search. A chemistry achievement test com- prising five problems at the macroscopic, sub-micro, and symbolic levels was used to obtain data about students’ miscon- ceptions of selected concepts. The results showed that the majority of students had formed inadequate mental models (mis - conceptions) for the chemical concept of the liquid state of water (66.5%). The lowest level of misconceptions is related with the gaseous state of matter, because almost all students (98.5%) solved the problem cor - rectly. It can be concluded that the results of the research are significant for chemistry teachers because they can: select and apply adequate educational strategies to avoid the deepening or development of miscon- ceptions and make the courses practically oriented by analysing students’ misconcep - tions and develop teaching strategies to minimise these problems in the chemistry classroo