The effect of the teaching with analogies model on elimination of misconceptions of 9th grade students about chemical bonding

This study aims to compare the effects of the teaching with analogies model andtraditional teaching with analogies model ad traditional teaching approach on breaking downthe misconceptions related to chemical bonding for 9th grade students. Pre-knowledge aboutthe subject, logical thinking capability and scientific operation skills of the students are takenin to account during this comparison.The experiments are conducted on the two 9th grade classes, totally 48 students ofAnkara, Çankaya Gazi University Foundation Private High School, during three weeks of thespring semester of 2005-2006 education year. In one of the classes, named as control group,the topic of chemical bonding was taught with traditional teaching model, while teaching withanalogies model is used in the other class, named as experiment group.The students of two groups were subjected to scientific operation skill test, logicalthinking group test, chemical bonding pre-knowledge test and chemical bonding concept testbefore the chemical bonding topic was taught. The chemical bonding concept test was appliedagain after the topic was taught. A pre-knowledge test (α = 0,6973) which measures the pre-knowledge of the students about the subject was develop by examining the 8th and 9th gradecurriculums. A literature survey was conducted to determine the misconceptions of the 9thgrade students about the chemical bonding topic. A two tier multiple choice diagnose test (α =0,6335) and the teaching material was prepared to reveal the effect of teaching with analogiesmodel on breaking down these misconceptions.The results of the exams applied to the students are evaluated using t-test and ancovaanalysis methods. The results of this evaluation showed that, teaching with analogies model isstatistically more effective (p<0,05) than the traditional teaching model for breaking down themisconceptions of the 9th grade students about the chemical bonding topic. The results alsorevealed that the students which have better pre-knowledge and logical thinking capabilityhave a better understanding about the chemical bonding topic. On the other hand the effect ofscientific operation skills of the students is insignificant.