High School Students’ Understanding of Acid-Base Concepts: An Ongoing Challenge for Teachers

Using a quantitative case study design, the Acids-Bases Chemistry Achievement Test
(ABCAT) was developed to evaluate the extent to which students in Malaysian secondary
schools achieved the intended curriculum on acid-base concepts. Responses were
obtained from 260 Form 5 (Grade 11) students from five schools to initially create the
two-tier multiple-choice items. After pilot testing, the final version of the ABCAT
consisting of 19 items, 10 multiple-choice items and nine two-tier multiple-choice items,
was administered to 304 students in Form 4 (Grade 10) from seven secondary schools
when 12 alternative conceptions were identified by at least 10% of the students. Of these
alternative conceptions, three were displayed by less than 15% of students. The two-tier
multiple-choice items had a slightly higher internal consistency reliability (Cronbach’s
alpha) of 0.54 than the multiple-choices items with a value of 0.42. The data from the
study suggest that the ABCAT has shown the extent to which the teaching has reduced the
incidence of students’ scientifically inappropriate understandings; for example, in nine of
the 19 items, no alternative conceptions were displayed by the students.