Jm. Case et Dm. Fraser, An investigation into chemical engineering students' understanding of the mole and the use of concrete activities to promote conceptual change, INT J SCI E, 21(12), 1999, pp. 1237-1249
First year chemical engineering students' understanding of the mole was inv
estigated and an intervention designed to improve their grasp of this funda
mental concept. Students' ideas were initially elicited in a series of grou
p interviews. These findings were checked against a multiple-choice test wh
ich was developed and administered to the whole class. The intervention com
prised a series of activities with a focus on 'tangible objects' which coul
d provide students with a visual/experiential point of reference. Both qual
itative and quantitative assessments indicated a strong positive effect of
the intervention. This approach now forms part of the first year curriculum
at the University of Cape Town. Although these students' problems were foc
used on the concepts of gmol, lbmol, and kmol, the misconceptions identifie
d were found to link strongly to those previously reported in the literatur
e for gmol, which suggests a broad applicability of the results obtained.