The effect of analogies on understanding of chemical equilibrium concepts

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of using analogies on 11th grade students' understandings about chemical equilibrium. This study was administered to a total of 96 11th grade students in four different science classes in a public school, in Konya, during the second term of 2011-2012 academic year. Two classes were assigned as control group and the others were assigned as experimental group. In experimental group, courses were completed with the constructivist approach in which analogies were presented by teacher and generated by students, while in control group courses were completed with traditional instruction approach by the same teacher. Pretest-posttest control group quasi experimental design was adopted in this study. Chemical Equilibrium Concept Test-pre, Group Assessment of Logical Thinking Test, and Analogical Reasoning Test were applied as pretests to both experimental and control groups. During the implementation, in experimental groups teacher used analogies and asked students to generate analogies. These analogies were scored and relationship between these scores and Analogical Reasoning Test which was administered before the implementation was examined. After the implementation Chemical Equilibrium Concept Test-post was applied both experimental and control groups, and according to the scores, 10 students were chosen from experimental and control groups to interview for examining their understandings deeply about chemical equilibrium. The results show that when students' Group Assessment of Logical Thinking and their prior knowledge related to the subject are controlled, based on constructivist approach, that the teacher uses analogies and the students generate them is more effective on students' conceptual understandings about chemical equilibrium than traditional instruction approach. While students' prior knowledge related to the subject influences their understanding about chemical equilibrium, their logical thinking ability and gender have no effect on understanding. Students' analogical reasoning ability and generating analogies differ significantly according to their cognitive development stage. Furthermore; there is no significant relationship between their achievement in generating analogies and analogical reasoning ability.