Analysis of the Level of Cognitive Demands about Concepts of Ionic Compounds and Molecule on Science 2 Textbooks in Junior High School (II)

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to analyze the cognitive demands level of the description about 'pure substance and mixture compound', 'ionic compound', 'molecule' on the 'science2' textbooks by the 2007 revised curriculum. The three types of Curriculum Analysis Taxonomy have been used to analyze the cognitive demands level of those contents on the 6 kinds of 'science2' textbooks. The first, the cognitive demand level about 'pure substance and mixture compound' on many textbooks is a late concrete operational stage because of class inclusion and hierarchical classification. And the descriptions as 'pure substance is conserved even when mixed with other pure substance' is a early formal operational stage. The second, the cognitive demand level about 'ionic compound' and 'molecule' is a early formal operational stage, because of "Formal modeling is the indirect interpretation of reality by deductive comparison from a postulated system with its own rules" and "Atoms have a structure". The third, the terms as 'ionic bonding', 'ionic compound', 'chemical formula', 'covalent bonding', 'covalent compound', and 'molecular formula' have been used on many 'science2' textbooks. Those terms would be used later on 'chemistry I' and 'chemistry II' in senior high school but not even 'science3' and 'science'.