The Evolution of Students' Mental Models and Metaphors towards the Atomic Concept

It could be argued that the main goal of the teaching process is to create accurate projections of scientific models in the minds of individuals. In this context, it could be argued that it is important to determine the change and development of the mental models that individuals create for events/phenomena and related metaphors in this process. This paper seeks to reveal how the mental models and metaphors of students with similar sociodemographic characteristics have evolved throughout the teaching process from secondary school to the undergraduate level. In the present study, the cross-sectional survey model, which is one of the descriptive research methods, was used. While the population of the study consists of students and pre-service teachers who receive formal education in public schools located in the South East Anatolia region in the 2019-2020 academic year, the sample consists of 720 students in total selected in equal numbers from every grade level with similar socio-demographic characteristics (60 students selected from the 5th -grade to the 4th -year students of the undergraduate degree). The data collection tool used in the study was a four-tier conceptual understanding test created by the researcher, who also tested its validity and reliability. The data were subjected to descriptive statistics, content analysis, and the Chi-square test. The results reveal that the students have highly different definitions and metaphors for the concept of the atom with their mental models generally evolving up to the Rutherford atomic model and failing to reach a higher model. It is recommended in future studies that researchers follow the process longitudinally and investigate the reasons why students' mental models fail to evolve into higher atomic models. [This study was presented as an oral presentation at the "International Conference on Education in Mathematics, Science & Technology" (ICEMST 2017).]