Student’s Misconceptions on the Concept of Chemical Equilibrium

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine students’ misconceptions regarding the concepts of chemical equilibrium. To diagnose students’ misconceptions in this area, a written test was administered to 216 11th grade high school students after their formal class schedule. The original test was developed by Hackling and Garnett, 1984 and translated and adopted into Turkish by the authors. The test included 47 multiple choice and true-false items and its reliability coefficient was found to be 0,87. An interview was also conducted with 20 students to establish their reasons for misconception with the open-ended questions. Analysis of responses revealed widespread misconceptions among students in the areas related to (1) approaches to chemical equilibrium, (2) characteristics of chemical equilibrium, (3) changing chemical equilibrium conditions, and (4) adding a catalyst.