The Multi-Tier Instrument in the Area of Chemistry and Science

*Habiddin Habiddin and Septiana Ayuningrum Nofinadya*

## **Abstract**

Knowledge of students' unscientific understanding before learning a new topic known as students' preconception or prior knowledge is vital for helping the teacher design a proper teaching strategy. Meanwhile, knowledge of students' understanding after teaching will provide a way for a teacher to evaluate the effectiveness of his/her teaching. For these reasons, science educators should investigate students' understanding over time. Studying students' understanding requires a proper and powerful tool/instrument such as a multi-tier instrument. This paper describes the history of multi-tier instruments initiated by the two-tier and recently became a five-tier instrument, the procedure to develop the instrument, and how to utilize the instrument to identify students' unscientific understanding. Our recent study describing the development of a four-tier instrument of electrolyte and nonelectrolyte solution (FTI-ENES) is presented.

**Keywords:** multi-tier instrument, four-tier instrument, three-tier instrument, two-tier instrument, five-tier instrument, unscientific understanding, misconception, science assessment

### **1. Introduction**

Investigating students' in-depth understanding, mainly their unscientific knowledge, has been carried out for decades. Teachers' knowledge of students' understanding, including their prior knowledge or preconception and understanding after teaching, is valuable. Knowledge regarding students' preconceptions is essential in assisting educators in providing effective teaching and learning. Many studies have proved the contribution of students' prior knowledge to their teaching success [1, 2]. Several instruments have been used for uncovering students' conception in science, including concept mapping [3], interviews [4], and the multiplechoice test [5, 6]. A proper and effective instrument must be utilized to investigate students' understanding. A typical instrument such as a multiple-choice question (MCQ ) cannot uncover a deep understanding [7] in science, particularly students' unscientific understanding/misconceptions. It has been revealed that the previous instruments have some disadvantages. Concept mapping relies on students' ability to master vocabulary [8], while the interview is time-consuming [9]. For multiplechoice questions, students' test-wiseness skills [10] could affect their reliability and validity indices, and the reason for students' answers cannot be fully uncovered [11]. Also, the role of guessing is often dominant in a multiple choice question [12].

Due to those previous instruments' disadvantages, the multi-tier format's diagnostic tool has recently been one of the most frequent instruments applied in science education studies. Our previous study [13] investigated the instrument used in the study involving students' understanding of chemistry and other science disciplines (biology and physics) covered in Indonesian journals. We revealed that multi-tier instruments, particularly four-tier instruments, have been the most accepted instrument and widely applied by Indonesian researchers in identifying students' unscientific understanding.

In this paper, several terminologies, including students' conception, students' understanding, students' scientific understanding, students' scientific knowledge, students' unscientific understanding, and misconceptions, are found. Students' conception reflects students' ideas and mental processes regarding natural phenomena. The ideas could be relevant or irrelevant to the concept accepted by the scientific community [14]. For this reason, the terminology of students' conception and students' understanding are interchangeable in this paper. The ideas which adhere to the concept accepted by the scientific community are called scientific knowledge. In contrast, those different from a view taken by the scientific community are called unscientific understanding.

The incorrect idea harbored by any particular person has been described in several different terminologies in the scientific literature, including wrong knowledge, misconception, erroneous ideas, unscientific understanding, alternative conception, misunderstanding, erroneous concepts, naïve idea, alternative frameworks, naïve concept, misinterpretation, and oversimplifications. Although these terms are interchangeable, the "unscientific understanding" is preferred in this paper because it reflects the nature of students' incorrect ideas or concepts.
