Facilitating conceptual change in students' understanding of electrochemistry

The main objective of this study is to construct a teaching strategy that can facilitate conceptual change in freshman students' understanding of electrochemistry. A major premise of the study is that providing students with the correct response along with alternative responses (teaching experiments) provides a conflicting situation that is conducive towards an equilibration of their cognitive structures. Students in the Experimental group participated in two 'teaching experiments', whereas those in the Control group solved similar problems without the experimental format. Results obtained show that the difference in performance of the experimental and control groups on post-tests 1 and 2 was statistically significant. It is concluded that the 'teaching experiments' facilitated students' understanding of electrochemistry.