Conceptual change in chemistry schematic modelling: a cross-sectional study of 10th–12th-grade Belgian students

Practice-oriented studies on conceptual change in chemistry education remain relatively scarce. In agreement with the constructivist approach, in which learners build their own cognitive structure, many results have shown that learning through modelling positively contributes to conceptual adaptation. From this point of view, this study presents a cross-sectional study of secondary school learners’ schematic modelling abilities in the upper secondary school. The schematic modelling skills and competences of 216 students (15–18 years old, 10th–12th grade), ranging from purely macroscopic conceptions to an adequate interplay between the three levels of Johnstone’s triangle, have been assessed within selected contextualized situations. The data were collected using a three-part instrument, namely the analysis of the information contained in a graphical scheme, the perception of the role and relevance of schematic modelling, and the autonomous production of schematic modelling. The collected data show that 12th-grade students have a significantly higher capability of analysing the information of a scheme compared to 10th and 11th grades. Moreover, autonomous schematic modelling skills follow the same trend. The data also provide some evidence that students with better model analysis competences design higher quality autonomous models at the submicroscopic level.