Differences in knowledge networks about acids and bases of year-12, undergraduate and postgraduate chemistry students

This study examines differences in conceptual knowledge representations among three groups of students with different levels of study of chemistry. Variation in the structural characteristics of participants’ concept maps on the topic of acid-base equilibrium were sought by indirect means. Year 12 secondary chemistry students, undergraduate chemistry majors and honours, masters and doctoral candidates participated in the study. Paired propositional links in the concept maps for the three groups were analysed by the scaling algorithms “Pathfinder” and multidimensional scaling. Results show differences among groups in the structural significance in the networks of abstract process-related nodes and matter-related nodes. Implications for theories of conceptual change are discussed.