| Abstract: | An investigation into the attempts of Chemistry I students at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, to answer questions in an examination involving stoichiometry and chemical equilibrium revealed that the majority of the students do not fully understand either concept. These results are in line with studies carried out in other countries and it seems that the main difficulty with these topics is that they are highly abstract and first taught to students before they have reached the stage of formal operational thought. Concrete examples (not open to misinterpretation) need to be used when these topics are first introduced to students, and cooperative learning in small groups should be encouraged to give students an opportunity to identify and remediate their misconceptions in a nonthreatening environment. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. |
