Conceptual Profile of Chemical Analysis

Abstract Chemical analysis is a fundamental concept in chemistry, which is characterized by polysemy observed in both scientific and everyday language, which are both employed in science classrooms. Our work aims at developing a conceptual profile model of chemical analysis as a methodological tool for describing the heterogeneity of students’ ways of thinking about the concept of chemical analysis. In this study, we present our findings resulting from an inductive qualitative analysis of secondary data obtained from the historical and epistemological literature (sociocultural domain) and students’ alternative conceptions and thinking (ontogenetic domain) in a dialogic way. A preliminary classification of the ways of thinking about chemical analysis is proposed: chemical analysis as (a) everyday analysis, (b) alchemical analysis, (c) empirical analysis, (d) classical analysis, (e) classical instrumental analysis, and (f) a contemporary tool for society. Proposed categories of ways of thinking are established and stabilized by ontological, epistemological, and axiological commitments, which were identified during data analysis.