UNIVERSITY STUDENTS’ UNDERSTANDING OF DENSITY AND CONCENTRATION: A CROSS-LEVEL INVESTIGATION

Abstract

In this study, it was aimed to explore all level university chemistry students, from freshmen to the students who graduated from the university chemistry departments, how students define the concepts of density, concentration, and solvation which are the fundamental and basic concepts of chemistry. Qualitative data were gathered in a test composed of 3 open-ended questions distributed to 135 university students comprising two different academic institutions: Education faculty and science and art faculty. Students were asked to provide a written description of three concepts. The data were analyzed by using both content analysis method and a concept-evaluation scheme. It was found that students had different understanding levels concerning three concepts and problems to the description of them. To add, students had the problem concerning the concept of mass which is a pre-requisite concept for density. The reason for the students’ difficulties with density and concentration can be related to nature of these concepts that involve proportional reasoning.