Understanding Mental Models of Dilution in Thai Students

The purpose of this study was to investigate Thai students’ understanding of dilution and
related concepts. The literature suggests that a complete understanding of chemistry concepts
such as dilution entails understanding of and the ability to integrate mental models
across three levels of representation: the macroscopic, sub-microscopic and symbolic. In
this work students’ understanding was probed using the interview about events (IAE)
approach employing open-ended questions, and also by analysis of student descriptions,
and drawings. The research findings suggest that all students were able to answer openended
questions related to dilution and related concepts. Less able students presented
representations at the symbolic level and subsequently described events at the submicroscopic
and macroscopic levels. However, these latter representations typically were
unrelated to the representations presented at the symbolic level. In contrast, more able
students were able to present consistent representations of dilution at each level of representation