A Study related to lycee students levels of understanding of the "evaporation, condensation and boiling" concepts

SUMMARY A Study Related to Lycee" Students' Levels of Understanding of the "Evaporation, Condensation and Boiling" Concepts Concepts are units of abstract thought, and difficult to be understood by pupils. For further learning to occur, the prerequisite concepts should be understood by pupils very well. The aim of this study is to determine and to compare lycee students' level of understanding related to the concepts of "evaporation, condensation and boiling". A case study research methodology was used in this study. A test was developed based on a pilot study. The test consists of three parts. Part I and Part II were prepared to find out level of students' oral knowledge and to whether the students can determine properties of these concepts. Part m was prepared by using three different words as an example of the term liquid (water, liquid, alcohol) in order to determine whether students interpret phenomena by using their previous knowledge. The test was implemented to a sample of 313 students which consist of 107 lycee I, 116 lycee II and 90 lycee HI. Clinical interviews were undertaken with 12 students, as either individual and groups. From the collected data, it is found that most of the students at different levels have lack of understanding of these concepts. The most important results is that students' written responses showed some specific misconceptions when they presented the questions by using three different words as liquid, water and alchol. But, this result did not come out in the interviews. Students at Lycee HI performed better than the lower levels. However, their learning level in these concepts needs to be still enhanced. To overcome students' misconception, a series of guide materials should be developed for teachers to be used. Key Words : Chemistry Education, Evaporation, Condensation, Boiling, Levels of Understanding, Misconceptions. VI