Elaboration Strategies to Eliminate Misconceptions about Environmental Chemistry

Previous studies highlighted misconceptions of high school students related to environmental chemistry, and researchers have mentioned that current teaching methods trigger such misconceptions. In an effective learning environment, teachers should be conscious of students’ pre-existing knowledge, but uncovering students’ notions may require complex procedures. For instance, “Elaboration” is an effective study strategy that assists student mastery of new materials. It requires that students clarify their learning with their own words and connect it with their own lives. The present research paper investigates the effectiveness of elaboration strategies for eliminating misconceptions in environmental chemistry courses. For this purpose, a quasi-experimental study will be conducted with 9th-grade students who will take the chemistry course in Turkey. While the treatment group will learn the subjects through heavy application of elaboration strategies, the control group will continue to learn the subjects by way of regular classroom teaching methods. At both the beginning and at the end of the course, students will complete a knowledge test generated by Arslan, Cigdemoglu, and Moseley (2012) and adopted by Karpudewan, Roth, and Chandrakesan (2015) associated with misconceptions about environmental chemistry topics. Additionally, students’ perceptions related to the teaching style of their instructors will be collected via several survey items generated by the researcher.