Difficulties encountered by the Moroccan high school students at the level of the modelling and the course of a chemical reaction
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Abstract
The aim of this paper is to explore the various difficulties encountered by the Moroccan high schoolers (senior high) as they
relate to the modelling of chemical reactions, microscopic concepts (electronic structure of atoms, valence band, valence
electron...) and macroscopic (colour change, gas emission...) linked to the chemical reaction; hence the distinction between
chemical transformation and physical transformation. All studies on this topic have shown that most learners still suffer from
numerous unresolved difficulties in this area. The symbolic register of the balanced equation represents a chemical reaction;
its reading can be done at a macroscopic level (observed phenomenon) and/or a microscopic level (interaction of particles,
imagined phenomenon). The originality of our study consists of suggesting, for the first time, a progression between both the
microscopic and macroscopic phenomena: Lewis structure (Lewis diagram of atoms and molecules), Gram’s model, and
spatial representation of simple molecules in order to reach a symbolization of a chemical reaction. Consequently, our study
was successful in reducing the degree of difficulty of obstacles encountered by learners at the level of symbolization of a
chemical reaction by 55% and the representations aligned with the concept of a chemical reaction by 65%.
Keywords: Modeling, chemical reaction, microscopic level, macro-level, symbolization, Lewis diagram, spatial representation,
Gram model, high school.
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