When students are first introduced to the concept of bonding, distinctions between covalent bonding and ionic bonding are often emphasized by introducing dichotomies such as 'metal and non-metal vs. two nonmetals' and 'shared electrons vs. transferred electrons.' Even though students can easily memorize and recite such dichotomies, research in our group has shown that students lack a conceptual understanding of the underlying electrostatic attractions involved in bonding. Evidence from 1) a research study asking students to generate physical models of covalent and ionic bonding and 2) data from a national sample of high school and general chemistry students (N=1072) as assessed by the Bonding Representations Inventory will be presented. The implications of this research for classroom teaching will be discussed.

Measuring students' ideas about covalent and ionic bonding with the Bonding Representations Inventory: Insights from models and the dangers of definitions

248th National Meeting (2014)

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