Concept mapping and misconceptions: a study of high‐school students’ understandings of acids and bases

Abstract

This paper reports a study of senior high‐school students’ understandings of concepts related to acids and bases. The methodology was grounded on a concept mapconstructed from the curriculum. This map was used in the design of a multiple‐choice test and of clinical interviews. It was also used in the analysis of the data, and inconstructing concept maps for each participant. The methodology and the resulting analyses are illustrated with two abbreviated cases selected from the study. It is shown that these participants hold idiosyncratic concepts not consistently coincident with those of the prescribed curriculum, and that everyday concepts are retained more than are scientificconcepts. Discussion of concept mapping points to how it starkly represents gaps in the understanding of concepts that are interrelated. This feature of the methodological approach is shown to be significant to the study of students’ conceptions when the subject‐matter concepts are theoretically linked.

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