A cross- age study of high school students' understanding of diffusion and osmosis

The aim of the study is to determinethe misconceptionsof the ninth and eleventh grade college studentsin diffusian and osmasis conceptsby using two- tier diagnostictest, developed by Odom and Barrow (31). The first tier examined content knowledge while the se- cond tier examined understandingof that knowledge. The test consistedof 12 multiplechoice itemsand was ad- ministeredto 108 college students(56 ninthgrade and 52 eleventh grade, respectively). The studentsparticipating in the studyhad completedthe uniton diffusianandosmo- sis. Each item was analyzed to determinestudentunders- tanding of, and identify misconceptionsabout diffusian and osmasis. While eleventh grade studentsselected the desired answer combination in the range of 15.4%- 96.2%, this range was reduced to 8.9% - 85.7% in the ca- se of 9th grade students. Mareaver, 10.8% - 87.5% of 9th and 1.9% -44% of the II th grades had no understan- ding of concepts. The analysis of the resultsrevealed that 9th grade studentshad more misconceptionsrelatedto dif- fusian and osmasis and greater difficulties in understan- ding these conceptsthan II th grade students

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