Students’ Misconceptions on Understanding Corrosion Topic by and without Analogy

Abstract

Redox reactions is spontaneous which can produce electrons flow. This condition can make corrosion of ferrum metal.. The electrons flow is not observed (submicroscopic aspect), so requires visualization. Strategy for visualizing submicroscopic aspect is analogy learning. The electrons flow can be analogous by the flow of waterfall. This research aims to examine the effect of analogy on the achievement of students’ understanding. The research used quasy experiment method with a nonequivalent posttest only control group design, so that there were an inquiry class by analogy (ICBA) and an inquiry class without analogy (ICWA). The results of mann whitney u test, u count = 313.5 were smaller than u table 526, so there was a significant difference between two classes, with a higher mean rank in ICBA. However students on ICBA were identified as having a specific misconception (SM) on several concepts of corrosion. The percentage of students on ICBA who have SM on the concept of voltaic series, prediction of metal rust, prevention of corrosion through metal coating, and cathodic protection were 46.67%, 46.67%, 66.67%, and 56.67%. The analog concept is not well understood by students, so potentially brings up SM. Analogies requires the students’ reason ability, because students conclude the submicroscopic aspects of corrosion through analyzing similarity and difference between analogous concept and target concept. In other words, analogy learning was giving submicroscopic aspect by indirect visualization. The results of other researches indicate that the reasoning ability of high school students is still low. The reasoning process requires students’ ability to analyze and conclude submicroscopic aspects of corrosion topic. A literation study of the reasoning ability of high school students is needed to explain the occurrence of SM, even though they have been given indirect visualization by analogy. Keywords—Analogy, Misconception, Reasoning Ability,