Mental Models in Chemistry: Senior Chemistry Students' Mental Models of Chemical Bonding

Abstract

In this paper we describe research into learners' mental models for chemical bonding. New Zealand senior secondary students, undergraduates and postgraduates' mental models for chemical bonding were probed using an interview protocol that included the use of a variety of common substances and focus cards that depicted model use in some way. The study found that the learners' mental models were simple and realist in nature, in contrast with the sophisticated and mathematically complex models they were exposed to during instruction. The learners drew upon some concepts from other models when their models proved inadequate to explain macroscopic events.