Study of Conceptual Knowledge and Mode of Reasoning Relating to the Characteristics of Covalent Bonds in Future Algerian Physics Teachers

In this study we tried to analyse how future teachers of Ecole Normale Supérieure (ENS) school who are at the end of education have integrated the specifications of covalent bonds in the different bond orders in terms of symmetry, stability, length, localisation (in the case of structures of ethane, ethylene and acetylene) or delocalisation of electrons (case of benzene). The analysis of responses to a written questionnaire shows that the majority of students have only integrated some knowledge, which may be termed as procedural, on the structural elements of molecules such as stability and the length of bonds. Although possessing some conceptual knowledge, students tend to use an alternative way of reasoning arising from the mental representation that single and multiple bonds are independent entities: the single bond is a “σ bond” while the double bond is considered only as a “π bond”.