Özet:

The purpose of this article is to propose a new diagnostic test that can be used to diagnose students� deeper understanding of a concept and what they think about the concept. The instrument is a further development of the existing four-tier test by adding one more tier, drawing sub-microscopic representations. So, this new instrument is called a five-tier test. This instrument can diagnose students� conceptions in more details and a window to student thinking that can help teachers in diagnosing students� understanding. Concepts of heat transfer are chosen as the context for developing he instrument since they are considered as essential concepts in school science. The research involved 69 fifth-grade elementary school students from a school in Bandung-Indonesia. This study shows that the five-tier diagnostic test can be used to probe deeper understanding of students. It reveals that most elementary students know the concepts as at the macroscopic level but they had a lack of knowledge at the sub-microscopic level. This study offer new instrument for diagnosing students� understanding that can be useful for practical purpose as well as researchers.

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