An analysis of preservice Chemistry teachers’ misconceptions of reduction-oxidation reaction concepts

Abstract

This article describes a study of 149 of preservice chemistry teachers’ misconceptions of concepts related to an reduction-oxidation reaction. A mixed-method approach was used to obtain data through the ROXCI (Redox Concept Inventory) instrument and interviews. Results indicated that the highest misconceptions were for item number 10 (4.03% or only 6 of 149 students answered correctly) and the lowest misconception occurred on item number 1 (94.63% or 141 of 149 students answered correctly). These results were supported by the analysis of the interviews where the respondents produced misconceptions when explaining the process of electron transfer in redox reactions. The highest percentage of consistent answers in the six ROXCI categories was obtained in the surface feature concept category (6.71% or 10 out of 149 respondents consistently answered correctly). This shows that preservice chemistry teachers are not able to connect the three levels of chemical representation, macroscopic, microscopic, and symbolic in studying chemistry, especially for the redox concept. Analysis of the relationships between misconceptions and average student confidence shows that every distractor chosen by the respondents at every level was followed by a degree of confidence of between 50%-70%, indicating that misconceptions became stronger because the preservice chemistry teachers did not realize that a concept believed to be true is wrong.