Freshman chemistry teacher students' understanding of basic chemical concept and corresponding representations with a special focus on chemical equations

This bachelor thesis deals with the topic of chemical equations as one of the basic chemical concepts. The theoretical part is devoted to the teaching of chemistry from the point of view of curriculum documents, the specifics of this school subject are presented, and the chemical triplet of representations is introduced. Subsequently, the thesis takes a closer look at the topic of chemical equations and their balancing. The eye-tracking method is also briefly introduced. The aim of this bachelor thesis is to map freshman chemistry teacher students' understanding of the particulate nature of matter, with an emphasis on chemical equations as a transcript of chemical reactions. The research combines both quantitative and qualitative methods. Twenty-four students participated in the initial written testing. Based on their performance on the test, students were divided into three categories. For the next phase of the research, the sample was narrowed down to 11 respondents. The eye-tracking method combined with think-aloud and interviews was used to obtain more detailed information. While the written pretest mainly tested knowledge of basic chemical concepts, the eye-tracking pretest focused more specifically on chemical equations and their presentation using different chemical representations. Success..