Chemistry teachers' misconceptions in chemical equilibrium

The aim of this study is to investigate misconceptions of teachers in service in chemical equilibrium. The misconceptions of teachers in chemical equilibrium is investigated in five main groups which are ?until the equilibrium is established?, ?proporties of equilibrium?, ?until the system is reached to new eqilibrium when an external effect is done? , ?the comparison of two equilibrium systems? and ?equilibrium constant?. If there exsists a relationship between the misconceptions in these five groups and the teachers gender, graduation of teachers (eithter in educational faculties or in others) and work experiences of teachers (0-5 years, 6-10 years,11-15 years and 16 years or up ) is also investigated in this study.93 teachers in service are undertaken in this study who are randomly selected in city center Konya and in big towns of Konya. A chemical equilibrium misconception test is prepared which is similar to one that I faced in the literature. The test consists 63 items which are divided into groups and sub-groups paralel to aim of this study including addition of inert gas and catalyst effect. An open ended question about the synthesis of amonia is added to the test in order to diagnose chemical equilibrium concept. The test was designed in a questionnarie form. Data were obtained by visiting the schools and applying the test to the teachers one by one.Data obtained in this study were assessed by SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Science) software with level of p=0,05 by using one way ANOVA (Analysis of variance) analysis and t-test. ? value of the results is calculated as 0,88.The result of statistical analysis indicated that there are many misconceptions in chemical equilibrium concept held by teachers in service who are participated in this study. The misconception with the highest ratio in chemical equilibrium is about the forward and reverse reaction rate. At the end, I have suggested a list of recommendation to the both teachers and the people who are in charge of education.