How do primary school children progress in understanding the composition of matter?
Written By: Author(s): Maria Tsapali
7 min read
How do primary school children progress in understanding the composition of matter?
Introduction
A fundamental target of chemistry education is for students to develop an understanding of the concept of matter and its particulate nature. Yet a number of studies have shown that students find it difficult to understand the concept and to apply it consistently when explaining chemical phenomena (e.g. Nakhleh and Samarapungavan, 1999; Talanquer, 2009). This study aims to explore how young children develop their understanding of the particulate nature of matter.
This is an important question, as few studies concern primary school children (Krnel, Watson and Glažar, 2005; Liu and Lesniak, 2005) and the research literature so far offers mixed answers as to the age at which children can understand the particle model (e.g. Fensham, 1994; Harrison and Treagust, 2002; Novak and Musonda, 1991; Papageorgiou and Johnson, 2005).
Students’ understanding of scientific concepts
Students’ understanding of scientific concepts has been extensively studied in science education r
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This article was published in July 2019 and reflects the terminology and understanding of research and evidence in use at the time. Some terms and conclusions may no longer align with current standards. We encourage readers to approach the content with an understanding of this context.
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