Exploring Students‟ Conceptions on Stoichiometry Using SCQS and VCQS

This study describes the prevalent conceptions held by third year high school students (n=204) on stoichiometry enrolled in one National High School in the Philippines. The Visual Conceptual Questionnaire in Stoichiometry (VCQS) and Symbolic Conceptual Questionnaire in Stoichiometry (SCQS) were used as the main instruments utilized in the study, which has a reliability coefficient of 0.66 and 0.65, respectively. Analysis of the conceptual test using VCQS and SCQS showed that biggest number of the students (57.11% & 59.07%) has incomplete understanding of balancing chemical equations. This implies that students did not fully understand the concepts on stoichiometry. Comparing students’ performance on both the VCQS and SCQS, results revealed that there is significant difference on the performance of the students in the two tests. This indicates that students performed better in SCQS than VCQS. The findings of this study have potential in translating research insights into practical advice for teachers regarding tactical moves on how to diagnose students’ conceptions on stoichiometry. This can also help the teacher to decide on what way/ways to be employed in teaching stoichiometry considering the use of particulate drawing and symbolic notation.

Keywords: Students Conception, Symbolic Conceptual, Visual Conceptual