Font Size:     

Symbols and valencies are essential for writing formulas, which in turn are used to write chemical equations. If the students have not grasped the concept of writing formulas and equations then further learning of chemistry becomes difficult. This article is based on a research study to investigate the understanding for symbols, formulas, valencies and chemical equations of Secondary School Teachers (SSTs) science and class IX students of Chakwal District. Convenient sample of 17 science teachers and 281 students was selected. The sample of the science teachers and students was representative of the four tehsils of district Chakwal. Data were collected by means of a test consistent upon four parts pertaining to symbols, formulas, valencies and chemical equations. The test carried 80 marks, 10 marks for Part A, 30 marks for Part B, 20 marks for Part C and 20 marks for Part D. Teachers and students were given the same set of test. Data were analyzed to find out the strong and the weak Parts by finding out the percentages of the four Parts. The performance of the teachers in all four parts remained better as compared to the students. The strongest part of the teachers was Part D i.e. balancing the equations and the weakest part was of Part B i.e. writing the valencies. The strong and the weak areas of the students were different as compared to the teachers, their strong part was Part A pertaining to symbols and the weak part was Part C pertaining to writing equations.