COMPUTERIZED APPLICATIONS ON COMPLEXATION IN CHEMICAL EDUCATION
It is difficult for the students to understand some concepts related to the chemistry education such as complex formation, central ion, ligand, free electron pair, acceptor, donor, stability constant of complex and concealing. In those cases, demonstrating two dimensional models and using various molecular graphics programs on computers could be helpful. Moreover, visual representations involving experimental applications related to the complexation may facilitate the understanding of the above mentioned concepts. In this study, the traditional and the computer assisted instructional methods in teaching complexation were compared. In addition to this, the possible effects of factors such as three dimensional spatial ability, attitudes towards computers, learning styles and socio economical status of the students on the student achievements were studied. Therefore, the students were randomly divided into control and treatment groups where they have been given a pretest consisting of 20 questions on complexation. Following the two days of application on the treatment group with the computer assisted instructional method and the control group with the traditional instructional method, the chemistry achievement post test was given to the groups. Furthermore, the data was collected on the three dimensional spatial ability, attitudes towards computers, learning styles and socio economical status of the students. According to the results of the data analysis, it was observed that, three dimensional spatial ability and the attitudes towards computers were not significant factors on the students’ achievement. On the other hand, learning styles of the students were a significant factor. The achievement increase of the treatment group students was 20% higher than those of the control group. All the students were similar in their socio economical profiles which are also above the national average. Two independent t tests were used for the statistical analysis of the collected data and it was observed that the post test results favored the treatment group significantly