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Investigating Students' Understandings of the Symbolic, Macroscopic, and Particulate Domains of Oxidation-Reduction and the Development of the Redox Concept Inventory

Brandriet, Alexandra R
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1403694253

Abstract Details

2014, Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, Chemistry and Biochemistry.
Previous literature regarding students' understandings about oxidation-reduction reactions has focused primarily on students' understandings at the symbolic domain, while literature regarding students' understandings about electrochemical cells has focused primarily on the particulate domain. This study attempts to explore the gap in the literature between students' symbolic oxidation-reduction understandings and particulate electrochemistry understandings by investigating students' understandings of multiple representations of oxidation-reduction reactions using sequential exploratory mixed-methods study. In the first phase of this study, students' misconceptions about oxidation-reduction at the symbolic, macroscopic, and particulate domains were elicited through qualitative research methods, and the results of this phase were used to create a concept inventory to measure students' understandings on a large scale in a quick and efficient manner. Six major misconceptions themes emerged during the students' interviews including 1) oxidation numbers, 2) surface features of the chemical representations, 3) electron transfer processes, 4) the role of the spectator ion, 5) the particulate and dynamic reaction process, and 6) charges & bonding. Using these themes, the Redox Concept Inventory (ROXCI) was developed and each item response choice was created based upon students' responses from the interviews. Therefore, the ROXCI is inherently designed to measure students' understandings. The ROXCI went through several rounds of revisions and evidence for the content validity, response process validity, test-criterion validity, internal consistency, and test-retest reliability are presented. The ROXCI was answered by more than 2000 students throughout the course of this study, and in the final round of implementations, the ROXCI was administered to over 1000 students in a national study. While previous studies have identified students' oxidation-reduction misconceptions in qualitative studies, the ROXCI study is the first to present students' misconceptions on a national scale. The students' results provide evidence that the ROXCI can be used as a formative assessment of students' understandings about oxidation-reduction misconceptions. Future studies should develop pedagogy to target students' misconceptions in the classroom.
Stacey Lowery Bretz (Advisor)
Ellen Yezierski (Committee Chair)
David Tierney (Committee Member)
Richard Taylor (Committee Member)
Jennifer Blue (Committee Member)
422 p.
Chemistry; Education; Educational Tests and Measurements; Science Education
Oxidation-reduction; Misconceptions; Concept Inventory; Representations; Assessment; Symbolic Domain; Macroscopic Domain; Particulate Domain

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Citations

  • Brandriet, A. R. (2014). Investigating Students' Understandings of the Symbolic, Macroscopic, and Particulate Domains of Oxidation-Reduction and the Development of the Redox Concept Inventory [Doctoral dissertation, Miami University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1403694253

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Brandriet, Alexandra. Investigating Students' Understandings of the Symbolic, Macroscopic, and Particulate Domains of Oxidation-Reduction and the Development of the Redox Concept Inventory. 2014. Miami University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1403694253.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Brandriet, Alexandra. "Investigating Students' Understandings of the Symbolic, Macroscopic, and Particulate Domains of Oxidation-Reduction and the Development of the Redox Concept Inventory." Doctoral dissertation, Miami University, 2014. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1403694253

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

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This open access ETD is published by Miami University and OhioLINK.