ENHANCING STUDENTS CONCEPTUAL UNDERSTANDING OF CHEMISTRY IN A SIMAYANG LEARNING ENVIRONMENT Indah Langitasari (a*), Ratna Sari Siti Aisyah (b), Rr. Nareswarizetkasyah Parmandhana (c), and Euis Nursaadah (d)
a,b,c) Chemistry education department, Universitas Sultan Ageng Tirtayasa, Jalan Ciwaru Raya No.25 Kec. Cipocok Kota Serang Banten, Indonesia
*indahlangitasari[at]untirta.ac.id
Students^ conceptual understanding of chemistry needs to be supported by the skill to think at three levels of representation. Many students have difficulty understanding the concept of chemistry because of the low skill to think at the three levels of representation. Chemistry learning needs to provide a learning environment that involves chemical representations to facilitate students^ interconnection skills of three levels of representation and ultimately improve students^ conceptual understanding. SiMaYang learning was designed by integrating chemical representation during the learning process. This study aimed to enhance students^ conceptual understanding of chemistry through the implementation of SiMaYang learning. A descriptive quantitative research method with One Group Pretest-Posttest Design is used in this study. Students^ conceptual understanding was measured using three sets of essay tests containing macroscopic, symbolic, and submicroscopic tests for the topic of the buffer concept. The research data were analyzed descriptively and statistically using N-gain and paired sample t-test. The results of the paired sample t-test show the sig value. 0.000 <0.05, which means SiMaYang Learning affects increasing students^ conceptual understanding in chemistry. The finding of this study inform the students^ conceptual understanding of chemistry increased in the medium category (N-gain = 0.62).
