Problems of common concentration of solutions and the multiplicative conceptual field: an analysis in chemistry textbooks

Abstract

The present investigation aimed to analyze and classify problem situations of Common Concentration of Solutions present in Chemistry textbooks, according to the theory of Conceptual Fields. For the analyses, the six Chemistry works approved by the PNLD 2018 were considered and the volume of the 2nd year of each work was selected, as they include the content of Common Concentration of Solutions. The research analyses, carried out in the light of the Conceptual Fields theory, showed that situations of Common Concentration are associated with the Multiplicative Conceptual Field and are classified as Simple Proportion. It was also identified that situations may vary in subclasses: Partition, One-to-Many Multiplication, Quota and Fourth Proportional. Therefore, the results showed that the problem situations of Common Concentration of Solutions are presented in the textbooks analyzed through contexts close to the reality of the students and that mathematical notions such as multiplication, division, operations with decimal numbers, fractions, proportion, volume and conversion of measurement units, as well as different mathematical representations, such as algebraic, numerical, tabular, graphic and natural language are essential for solving Common Concentration problem situations in Chemistry.

Keywords

• chemistry
• math
• multiplicative structure
• simple proportion