According to the science curriculum, there are some science subjects taught in high schools. One of them is chemistry. Most high school students consider that chemistry is difficult. Some research have shown that sources of students’ difficulties in learning chemistry are the abstract of chemical concept, teaching styles and the difficulty of scientific language literacy. Because of these reasons, students may have bad perception toward chemistry. The bad perceptions can influence students’ approaches to their studies. Knowing the beginning of the bad perceptions’ appearance is useful in designing the learning strategies. The study aims to explore students' perceptions in junior high school toward chemistry and its influence to the students' interests in learning chemistry in high school.

 

A descriptive qualitative research design was used to investigate the perceptions and its influence to learning chemistry. The data were collected using interviews, classroom observation, and survey. The study was a collaboration with a science teacher and twenty-seven junior high school students in Wonopringgo, Pekalongan region. The students were selected using purposive sampling strategy.

 

Junior high school students’ perceptions toward chemistry were examined and the data collected from the students were organized and discussed in Table 1. Junior high school students knew about term of chemistry in science education, but they could not differentiate between biology and chemistry contents or physic and chemistry contents. The findings show that the students did not familiar with chemistry. Many symbols and terms in chemistry made the students took effort to memorize and they did not know the meaning of them. Integrating three learning levels of chemistry should be applied in teaching process, so the students will know the meaning of terms, symbols and sub microscopic explanation between them.

 

Table 1. Students’ perception toward chemistry

Characteristic of perceptions

Dimensions

Result

Perceiver’s specific characteristic

Familiarity with chemistry

Students only know the terms of chemistry but do not know its contents

Mood

Students like experiments in chemistry

Self-concept

Students consider that learning chemistry is of no use

Cognitive structure

Students do not want to believe unfamiliar information about chemistry which illogical and does not fit with prior knowledge

Target’s specific characteristics

 

Physical appearance

Chemistry is a complex subject in which the symbols may change at any time

Verbal/nonverbal

Some chemistry’s terms must be memorized and they are illogical abstract concept

Intention

Only students who have high mathematics and abstract thinking ability who can understand chemistry

Situation’s specific charateristics

 

[Social] context

Students are not interested in learning chemistry, because their teacher lack of ability to convey abstract concepts and apply the three learning levels in chemistry.

[Strength] of situational context

Using media to enhance teaching and learning can help students  to visualize chemistry subject

 

The key findings of this study alludes junior high school students considered chemistry as a complex science lesson with symbols and terms that should be memorized. Teacher’s ability to convey abstract concepts affects students’ interests. Bad perceptions toward chemistry made the students are not interested to learn chemistry in high school, therefore it does not make the students' curiosity appear. Thus, it is recommended that teachers make a good first impression in learning chemistry.