Study of Misunderstandings of Chemical Bonds Based on Johnston's Triangle Multilevel Thought Model

Students faced with various definitions and patterns in chemistry to justify the formation of chemical bonds and compounds. Teachers expect the students to memorize and apply all these concepts. This descriptive-analytical study investigated the understanding, ability for using these definitions and patterns, and the misapprehension of students regarding chemical bonds. First, a plan was developed concerning chemical bonds utilizing the Johnston learning model to determine the understanding of students. The plan was assessed for ten groups of three grade 12 students. The results demonstrated that although most of the students can give a good explanation of ionic and covalence bonds and even draw the structure of Lewis or fabricate models, they have incorrect assumptions for the analysis of these models. The reason for this shallow and unstable learning can be attributed to the high volume of teaching material in each educational level and this factor itself can cause more misunderstandings. Using passive methods such as lecturing, lack of motivation and enthusiasm for learning in learners which can be effective in poor learning and misunderstandings.