International Journal of Applied Science and Technology Vol. 1 No.4; July 2011 161 STUDENTS’ MISCONCEPTIONS IN LEARNING BASIC CONCEPT ‘COMPOSITION OF MATTER’ IN CHEMISTRY Ahmed Sher Awan Assistant Professor Department of Science Education Institute of Education and Research University Punjab Lahore Pakistan Dr. Tariq Mahmood Khan Assistant Professor Institute of Education and Research University Punjab Lahore Pakistan Dr.Muhammad Naeem Mohsin Post Doc Fellow Department of Educational Sciences Islamic Religious Pedagogy University of Vienna, Austria Dr Ashiq Hussain Doger Controller Examinations University of Education Lahore Pakistan ABSTRACT The main objective of this research study is to probe students’ misconceptions and to provide qualitative descriptions of the existence of high frequencies of alternative conceptions in science students at secondary level. The sample of the study was consisted of 120 subjects of class 10 th randomly selected to explore students understanding in the concept composition of matter which is big idea in the field of learning chemistry. Total seven instances or non-instances about this concept were used as IAI (interview about instances) instrument to investigate student’s misconceptions of each subject. The reliability of the instrument was determined by Cohan Kappa through inter-rater reliability. Content validity was established by experts. High frequencies of misconceptions rather than scientific responses were obtained from the boys and girls subjects of class 10 th in spite of teaching for two years through traditional textbook approach. Further, the qualitative analysis conducted through categorical analysis which explored five categories of misconceptions which indicates the five alternative ways or frameworks of thinking. It may guide science teachers for applying active learning approaches towards promoting conceptual change. More misconceptions were found in catetory-3 (self-centered/human-centered view) and category-5 (scientific term but incorrect explanation) as compared to other three categories. Key Words: Misconceptions, Alternative conceptions, Students‟ understanding, Learning, Basic concept, Composition of matter, IAI (interview about instances), non-instances Content validity, Reliability, INTRODUCTION Matter is anything that has mass and occupies space, which exists in three forms – solid, liquid or gas. In a way, matter is the substance of everything. Chemists, however, are especially interested in matter; they study it and attempt to understand it from nearly every possible point of view. So, matter can be described at the level of individual particles that make it up. Therefore, modern chemistry is based on an understanding and exploration of the behaviour and nature of substances at atomic level (Kotz, Treichel & Harman, 2003; Caret, Denniston & Topping, 1997). Learning of isolated science facts, without any sense of how they fit together, is all too common at both the elementary and secondary grade levels. Rote memorization and cramming of such factual information about scientific knowledge has become a routine. In the past, science teachers were used to practice a specified set of teaching methods clearly aligned with any of the existing principles of learning like behaviorism or cognitivism. Traditional lectures were based on the assumption that knowledge is simply transmitted from teacher to student. But in present day schools, more and more emphasis is laid to develop understanding of scientific concepts in students.