Abstract:

The topic of ionization energy is one of the important topics of the secondary school curriculum of many countries. In this study, it was aimed that to determine the secondary school students’ alternative conceptions about ionization energy. For this purpose, a true/false diagnostic instrument was used to obtain data. The instrument which contains 20 questions was translated in Turkish firstly. After then to provide content validity, the instrument was examined by seven chemistry teachers. To provide reliability, the instrument was applied to 38 students twice. The final instrument was administered 956 students who are attending at 9th grade (269 students), 10th grades (253 students), 11th grade (236 students), and 12th grade (198 students) from nine different secondary schools in Balikesir, Turkey. At the end of the study, it was found that the students had two alternative frameworks that are the full outer shells explanatory principle and/or the conservation of force conception.   

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