The Difficulties of X Grade High School Students in Palangka Raya City Academic Year of 2018/2019 in Understanding Chemical Bond Concept using Two-Tier Multiple Choice

Abstract

The concept of chemical bonds is one of the concepts that students are less familiar with, so there is a need for a diagnostic test to determine students' difficulty. This study aims to describe students' difficulties in understanding the concept of chemical bonds using two-tier multiple-choice which includes the following sub: (1) stable electron configuration, (2) valence electrons, (3) ionic bonds, (4) covalent bonds, and (5) metal bonds. The subjects of this study were students of class X MIA from SMA Negeri 1 Palangka Raya, SMA Negeri 3 Palangka Raya, and SMA Negeri 4 Palangka Raya with a total number of research subjects being 335 students. Students' difficulties in understanding the concept of chemical bonds were expressed using the Tes Kemampuan Ikatan Kimia (TKIK) form two-tier multiple choice of 15 questions and interviews to confirm the students' difficulty. The test results of TKIK showed a reliability of 0.68, an item discrimination power of 0.5, and an item difficulty level of 0.41. The results showed that the difficulty of the students in understanding the concept of chemical bonds with the percentage of the most difficult to easy difficulties was in order to determine the covalent bonds of 58.7%, determined the ionic bond at 55.4%, determined the metal bond at 54.3%, determined the stable electron configuration of 35.8%, and determine the valence electrons at 35.1%.