Turkish chemistry undergraduate students misunderstandings of Gibbs free energy

This study is aimed at identifying and classifying Turkish chemistry undergraduates’ misunderstandings of

Gibbs free energy. In order to fulfill this aim, open-ended diagnostic questions and semi-structured interviews

were used, conducted both before and after the topic was taught. Diagnostic questions were answered as pretests

and post-tests by about forty-five students who took physical chemistry courses from two different

chemistry education departments in two different universities in Turkey. Twenty-two ‘pre-interviews’ and five

‘post-interviews’ were carried out just after the administration of the tests. Seven different misunderstandings

were identified. Although some of the findings of this study confirm the previous research findings, it goes

beyond them by identifying new misunderstandings and suggests places where these misunderstandings may

originate. The results have implications for tertiary level teaching, suggesting that a substantial review of

teaching strategies is needed.