Research On The Mental Model Of "Covalent Bonds" In High School Students

Mental model is the internal representation of the objective world produced when an individual interacts with the objective world.Mental models reflect students' thinking patterns when they use chemical concepts to solve chemical problems,and reflect students' cognition and understanding of chemical concepts.In-depth understanding of students' cognitive methods and representation forms of chemical concepts,and exploration of their implicit cognitive structure,and implementing targeted teaching on this basis will help optimize the teaching effect.The research mainly explores the mental models of high school students' knowledge about covalent bonds.Firstly,on the basis of reading relevant domestic and foreign literatures,the concept of mental model is defined,and the formation mechanism and representation form of mental model are further elaborated,and then a test questionnaire is compiled around the knowledge of covalent bonds.On this basis,data analysis was carried out on the results of the questionnaire.According to the students' mastery of covalent bond knowledge,they were divided into three levels: A,B,and C,and summed up the types of mental models of students with different levels of covalent bond knowledge.Combining the types of mental models expressed by students at different levels of knowledge about covalent bonds,the author carried out image representations of the mental models of students at three different levels,and finally came to the following conclusions:1.Students' mental models are diverse.In the process of learning the knowledge of covalent bonds,high school students have produced a total of 40 different mental models.There are 17 different mental models for the formation of covalent bonds,and6 for the stability judgment of covalent bonds.Different mental models,there are 10 different mental models for the polarity analysis of covalent bonds,and 7 different mental models for the understanding of the spatial structure of molecules.2.The mental models of students at different levels are different.When different students solve the same problem,they will use different mental models in their minds to explain,which has individual differences.The mental model of A-level students is relatively scientific,and the knowledge system is relatively logical,which is close to the ideal mental model.B-level students have already shown a large deviation when constructing their mental models.The way they think about problems is relatively simple,they do not take into account the existence of various situations,and their thinking lacks divergence.For C-level students,the ideas in their minds are more chaotic and abrupt,the mental models appear a lot of previously learned knowledge,the thinking is jumpy,and the relationship network between concepts is relatively simple.3.Students do not have a deep understanding of the essence of defining concepts,such as the essential reasons for the formation of covalent bonds.Students do not understand,especially more complex concepts and theories,such as atomic orbital hybridization,how exactly is hybridization What is the meaning of hybridization? This kind of knowledge with a relatively high degree of abstraction is particularly prone to cognitive biases.When students solve problems,they especially like to make assumptions based on personal experience.This research divides the knowledge about covalent bonds into 4 themes,summarizes the common mental models of students in these 4 themes,analyzes the reasons behind the students' appearance of each mental model,and puts forward relevant teaching suggestions for teachers' teaching.