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Thabiea Article Roserina 1
Thabiea Article Roserina 1
Natural Science, State University of Malang, Jl. Semarang No.5, Malang,65145, Indonesia
*Correspondence: roserina81@yahoo.co.uk
Abstract
Keywords: Understanding Stereochemitry has been the foundation to learn the other
stereochemistry advanced topic in chemistry. One of requirement to master the topic for students is
multimedia having a good scientific reasoning skills. The objectives of this study were to: (1)
concrete describe students' scientific reasoning skills and student’s comprehension on
scientific Stereochemistry (2) examining the relationship between scientific reasoning skills and
reasoning students' understanding of the stereochemistry topic (3) examining differences in
understanding of stereochemistry topic between students taught with multimedia and
those taught with concrete model.
This study used a 2 × 2 factorial quasi-experimental design and the
population was all of students enrolled in semester 2, 2020-2021 period at the
Department of Chemistry, State University of Malang. The research sample consisted
of two classes which were selected using cluster random sampling. The instrument
used was a test of scientific reasoning skills and a test of concept understanding of the
stereochemical topic. The scientific reasoning skills test was adopted from the
Classroom Test of Scientific Reasoning (CTSR): Multiple Choice Version revised
2000 edition developed by Lawson. The CTSR scientific reasoning skills test consists
of 24 multiple choice questions. Stereochemical comprehension test is an essay test
consist of 10 questions with content validity of 97.0% and reliability coefficient,
measured using the Cronbach Alpha equation, of 0.87. The research data were
analyzed using Rank-Spearman correlation and Mann Whitney Independent T-Test
analysis.
The results revealed that: (1) the students' scientific reasoning skills were in
the low category; (2) there is a relationship between scientific reasoning skills and
students’ concept understanding of stereochemical topic (significance <0.05) (3) there
is no difference in understanding of students' concept stereochemical topic taught with
multimedia and those taught with concrete model (significance> 0 , 05).
.
To cite this article:
Kusumaningdyah, R., Habiddin, H., Utomo, Y. (2021). The Effect of Multimedia and
Concrete Models on Understanding of Stereochemical Topic on Students with Different
Scientific Reasoning Skill. Thabiea: Journal of Natural Science Teaching, Vol(Num), 135-
150.
Introduction
Stereochemical topic has a very important role in all fields of chemistry (Popova et al.,
2016). Stereochemistry and reaction mechanisms are part of the topic in organic chemistry.
This branch of chemistry is very important because it is the main subject in the field of
Pharmacy, Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, Biotechnology, and Medicine. This topic is
taught to students through many lecture activities (Mdachi, 2012).
The Title of Manuscript………………………………………………………………………………………………………….…… Author.
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Method
The aim of this studty is to examine the effect of multimedia and concrete models as
teaching tools on students' understanding of the concept of stereochemistry. The research
design used a quasi-experimental research type 2 x 2 factorial. The first class was taught with
multimedia tool and the second class was taught using a concrete model. Students in both
classes are divided into two groups, and labelled as students with high and low scientific
thinking abilities.
This research was conducted at the State University of Malang. The study population
was all students of the Chemistry education study program, State University of Malang,
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second semester of the 2020/2021 academic year. The sampling technique used was Cluster
Random Sampling, which was done randomly.
The study population consisted of 112 students and divided into four classes: class A,
B, C, and D. Class A consisting of 29 students, class B consisting of 30 students, and class C
consisting of 29 students, and class D consisting of 24 students. This study uses class A and
class B as the research sample. Class A is taught with multimedia class and class B is taught
with concrete model.
The instruments used in this study included (1) the treatment instrument in the form of
interactive multimedia learning Stereochemistry (Unity3D and Blender software), concrete
models and lesson plans (2) the assessment instruments consisted of: a scientific reasoning
skills test adopted from the Classroom Test of Scientific Reasoning (CTSR) developed by
Lawson, consists of 24 multiple choice questions, and the Stereochemical comprehension test
consists of 10 questions in the form of an essay.
The prerequisite test of the research instrument was carried out before the instrument
was used. This prerequisite test includes a validity test by several experts, a test of item
validity, and a reliability test. The whole test was carried out so that the instruments used in
the research are truly valid and reliable.
Hypothesis I and II tests were carried out using non-parametric tests because the
sample data were not normally distributed and homogeneous. Hypothesis I test used Rank-
Spearman Correlation. The results of the Rank-Spearman Correlation test used the SPSS
Statistics application. Hypothesis II test was carried out by using the comparative analysis of
the Mann Whitney Independent T-Test. The results of the comparative analysis of the Mann
Whitney Independent T-Test used the SPSS Statistics application as well.
The table illustrates that 8 (14.81%) of students are at the post formal level, 11
(20.37%) of students are at the upper formal level, 19 students (35.18%) are at the low formal
level, and 16 students (29.63%) are at the concrete level. It can be concluded that still there
are most students in the second semester of State University of Malang who at a low level
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Thabiea: Journal of Natural Science Teaching, 3(1);135-150, 2020
(concrete and low formal) of scientific reasoning skill. Not all students are able to think
scientifically at high level categories (upper formal and post formal).
The low level of students' scientific reasoning skills is being considered caused by
several factors. First, because the learning process is less scientific so that the students will
not think in scientific way, for example scientific writing activities that will affect students'
ability to draw conclusions. This assumption is also reinforced by research conducted by
Quitadamo and Kurtz (Dowd et al., 2018) which states that students who take laboratory
writing classes in general biology courses show a significant increase in the ability to draw
conclusions, analyze, and evaluate.
Based on Table 2, the average score for class A which taught using multimedia class is
8.2 and the class taught using the concrete model is 9.8 from 100 total value. Referring to the
average value, it can be seen that the understanding of the concept of students at the beginning
before learning is still very low. The resulting score reflects the students' conceptual
understanding of Stereochemical topic which is still limited to the topic previously studied in
high school. Most students were able answer problems related to the topic isomeric structure,
and geometrical isomers Cis and Trans. Most of the students had difficulty in answering
questions related to the advanced comprehension of Cis and Trans isomers, as well as
difficulties in working on problems regarding optical isomers, molecular chirality,
diasteriomers and mesosomers. There are still many students who cannot distinguish between
geometric isomers found in cyclic compounds and alkenes.
Based on the results of the study after learning using both multimedia learning tool
and concrete models in Table 3, there was an increase showed in the post-test average score of
understanding the concept of stereochemistry, that were 58.9 for multimedia classes and 54.9
for concrete model classes.
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This average score shows that there were still many students who do not fully
understand the concept of stereochemistry. For example, there were still many student errors
in determining the R or S configuration of a pair of enantiomers as shown in Figure 1.
The results of this study are also in accordance with research by Leontyev (2015)
which reported that students had difficulty visualizing organic compounds and the R or S
naming system, especially in translating from 2-dimensional to 3-dimensional representations.
ӿ = 49,0 ӿ = 54,0
Low N = 12 N = 23
SD = 14,9 SD = 8,6
Note: The maximum score of the Stereochemical comprehension test is 87
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Meanwhile the results of the Rank-Spearman Correlation test analysis between the
scientific reasoning skill test scores and the post-test scores of the Stereochemical concept test
obtained a significance value of 0.004 as shown in Table 5.
This data shows that there is a relationship between students 'scientific reasoning skills
and students' understanding of stereochemical topic. The obvious relationship between the
two variables proves that the ability to think scientifically affects the success of students in
understanding Stereochemical topic. This means that students with high scientific reasoning
skills understand more about stereochemical topic than students with low scientific reasoning
skills. Likewise, students with high scientific reasoning skills get good achievements on
stereochemical topics than students with low scientific reasoning skills.
This influence can be explained as stated by Lawson (Rahmadani, 2017) which is said
that students with the category of high scientific reasoning skills were able to solve problems
that require formal thinking skills such as combination, proportional, probabilistic, and
correlational reasoning, perform hypothetical-deductive reasoning identification as well and
control of variables, so that this made the students were able to test causal hypotheses or to
solve problems. Meanwhile, students with the low scientific reasoning skills were only able to
solve problems that require the ability to think at a concrete level, for example the ability to
carry out simple classifications and generalizations (class inclusion), to think about the
conservation of real objects and their nature (conservation), the ability to organize a group of
objects in sequence (serial ordering), as well as doing hypothetico-deductive reasoning but
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can not be used to solve problems. As a result, individuals with this ability still have
difficulty building concepts.
For example, when students are faced with solving stereochemical topic problems that
require the ability to think at a formal level suchn as what the reason for a compound to have
phenomenon of geometric isomerism is and how the effect of internal-symetry-plane on
molecule with chiral carbon atoms on its active optically is. Many students did not answer
correctly as shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2. Representation of Students' Wrong Answers that The Molecules which have
Internal-Symetry-Plane will still Show Optically Active Properties
The student replied that molecules that have internal-symetry-plane will remain
optically active. Students with good scientific reasoning skills whould find a correlation that
the existence of internal-symetry-plane of chiral molecules will divise a compound in a half
so that the two halfs reflects each other, this make the compound symmetry and achiral,
thereby also affecting its active optically which is to be non-optically active. It was due to the
most students still thinking on the concrete level. They did not have the ability to do
correlational reasoning and did hypothetical-deductive reasoning to solve problems. In
addition, many students did not have the ability to think formally in doing correlation
reasoning as is when students answered the question whether the enantiomeric pairs were the
same compound or not. They mostly answered that the pairs were the same compound, so this
shows that many students have not found a correlation between the differences in the position
of a molecule's group in three-dimensional space and its identity.
Based on these findings, it can be concluded that students with low scientific
reasoning skills will find it difficult to learn learning topics, especially stereochemistry, so
that their learning achievement is also less satisfying. This statement is corroborated by
Herron (1975) who states that students who do not yet have formal abilities are often found to
experience frustration when solving scientific problems and tend to give up easily. As a result,
their achievements are not satisfying.
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The results of data analysis shown in Table 4 show that the understanding of
sterechemistry topic for students with high scientific reasoning skills who were taught with
multimedia is higher than those who were taught with the concrete model. On the contrary,
the understanding of stereochemistry topic for students with low scientific reasoning skills
who were taught with concrete model tool is actually higher than those taught with
multimedia tool. The two tools have relatively the same effectiveness. Meanwhile the data
shown in Table 5 shows that the understanding of the stereochemistry topic of students who
were taught with multimedia aids is slightly higher than students who were taught using
concrete model, or there is no significant difference between the two learning tools in
developing students' conceptual understanding of the Stereochemical topic.
Hypothesis II test result shows that there is no difference in understanding of
Stereochemical topic between students who were taught using multimedia and students who
were taught with concrete model. Based on the three results of the analysis, it can be
concluded that overall multimedia and concrete model have the same effectiveness in
developing students' understanding of sereochemical topic. However its is spesifik. It is more
effective for students with high scientific reasoning skills to be taught with multimedia, while
students with low scientific reasoning skills taught with concrete model. However, in certain
cases multimedia have some advantages over concrete models. On Table 6, there are several
questions such as question numbers 1, 4, 5, 8, 9, and 10 which require the ability of students
to visualize the phenomena that occur in isomers. This ability can be assisted by learning tools
such as multimedia or concrete models.
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On Table 6, it also can be seen that the multimedia class has a higher percentage of correct
answers compared to the concrete model class, while for other question numbers, such as
1,3,6,7 the percentage of the concrete model class is actually eminent.
Based on these things, it can be concluded that both multinedia application program
and concrete models can stimulate students to building their own stereochemical concepts.
This statement is comfirmed by the research facts which state that the learning multimedia is
designed to present chemical topic which is supported by multiple concept representations of
two-dimensional visualization, three-dimensional virtual models of molecular modeling
programs and animation of videos and games. Multimedia helps students to build mental
visualizations where the features of virtual molecular models, animated videos and games
allow students to observe three-dimensional molecular shapes from various points of view,
their rotation and movement so as to provide students with a better understanding of the three-
dimensional properties and shapes of various molecules (Anggriawan, 2017). Molecular
modeling programs demonstrate their effectiveness in overcoming learning difficulties in
chemistry (Dori & Barak, 1999). The concrete model also has its own advantages in helping
students build their understanding. As stated by most researchers, concrete models are
effective because of their real nature (Clements, 1999) so that students can see them directly
in three-dimensional form (O’Brien, 2016). Through the concrete model, students do not need
to imagine, but can see directly so they can quickly identify (Herron, 1975). This will connect
it with one's intuition and thus leave a deep impression.
Conclusion
Based on the resut of the research, it can be deduced that most of the second
semester students of 2020-2021 State University of Malang are still at low level of
scientific reasoning skills (concrete and low formal) as much 35 (64.82%) of students.
Thus it reflect the students' understanding of the concepts of stereochemistry which is
categorized low as well.
The scientific reasoning skills has an obvious influence on students'
understanding of the stereochemical concept of topic. However the dificiency of
scientific reasoning skills can be accomodated by the use of learning tool such as
multimedia and concrete model. Both learning tools have the same effect on
understanding concept of Stereochemistry of students.
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Yudhi Utomo, M.Si. as the second supervisor who has guided, directed, motivated, and
provided a lot of input, as well as spent time, energy, and thoughts in guiding the author.
She is indebted to Dr. Munzil, S.Pd., M.Si. dan Dr. Siti Marfu’ah, M.S as evaluator for
her research instruments, for their constructive comments and suggestion for the improvement
of this study.
Last but not least, the guidance and support received from author’s lovely mother Mrs.
Astuti, siblings Antin and Lely who have given love, enthusiasm, motivation, support both
morally and materially, and prayers for the completion of this study. May God bless them.
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