EVALUATING THE POTENTIAL OF DIAGNOSTIC INSTRUMENTS IN INDENTIFYING STUDENTS‟ MISCONCEPTIONS ON CHEMICAL BONDING: THE CASE OF CHELENKO PREPARATORY AND KERSA PREPARATORY SCHOOLS, EASTERN HARARGE

Abstract

This research study aimed to evaluating the potential of diagnostic instruments in identifying students’ misconceptions on chemical bonding concepts such as ionic bonding, covalent bonding, and related chemistry concepts like molecular shape, polarity, inter-molecular force of attraction, and intra-molecular attraction force, which may be one of the causes of chemical misconceptions by applying three-tier misconception test for a control group and four-tier misconception test for an experimental group. It was also attempted to test the accuracy and precision of the common diagnostic tests in measuring students’ misconceptions and performance in terms of different test standards and standard indicator. To attain these goals, respective data were gathered through open-ended, three-tier and four-tier misconception tests. The earlier was administered to identify major areas of students’ misconceptions, and the second was used as reference while the latter was administered twice to different groups as a pilot and revised forms. Using the results of the pilot test some items were rewritten accordingly. The results of this study actually showed that misconceptions largely shared by about 33 % of the sampled students. Finally, the findings of this study indicated that openended, multiple choice items, two-tier tests and three–tier misconception tests used for the control group were less valid, reliable and discriminatory than that the four-tier misconception test used for the experimental group.