INTERDISCIPLINARY MISCONCEPTIONS AT THE SUBMICROSCOPIC LEVEL ON OSMOSIS AND DIFFUSION: A FOUR-TIER DIAGNOSTIC TEST STUDY AMONG CHEMISTRY EDUCATION STUDENTS

Abstract

Osmosis and diffusion require submicroscopic reasoning that connects chemistry and biology, making these concepts prone to misconceptions among pre-service teachers. This study identified interdisciplinary submicroscopic misconceptions about osmosis and diffusion among Chemistry Education students. A quantitative descriptive survey was conducted using a 15-item four-tier questionnaire administered online to 40 students (17 from class A1 and 23 from class A2). Responses were categorized as understanding the concept, misconception, guessing, or not understanding the concept, based on the correctness of answers and reasons and on confidence levels. The aggregate analysis covered all 15 items (504 responses). Results showed that 61.1% of responses reflected conceptual understanding, 21.6% misconception, 7.9% guessing, and 9.3% no understanding. In addition, 69.4% of students held a misconception on at least one item. Misconceptions were more common for osmosis (25.3%) than for diffusion (17.2%). Prominent misconceptions included viewing equilibrium as a static state, misrelating the net movement of water to changes in potato mass, and believing that osmosis occurs actively. Students were highly confident (92.1% on Tier 2 and 89.3% on Tier 4), even when their answers were wrong, and 78.0% of misconception responses were inconsistent across tiers. These findings indicate that instruction should emphasize the particle model, the dynamic nature of equilibrium, and the connections between chemistry and biology concepts