Furthermore, Slavin (1997) mentioned that collaborative learning will be useful for students to solve
problems in real-life situation. In this study, we selected “dissolve” concept, since the concept is related to the
real-life situation. However, many elementary students could not understand the dissolve concept. By observing the macro-phenomenon, elementary school students thought the sugar “disappears” after dissolving (Johnstone,
1991). Because the micro-phenomenon is difficult to display in the real world environment, the misconception
of “Dissolve is the meaning of something disappear in water” are existing in students’ mind. The
misconceptions of dissolve from elementary school students are also shown according to interview data of this
study.
S07: The dissolve means disappear… I cannot see the sugar anymore.
S29: I am not sure. I cannot see the sugar in water, but if I put a lot of sugar, it will appear in the bottom of cup.
S63: No! The sugar disappeared after it dissolves in water.
(S07, S29 and S63 are the case students)