The MIMIC model, which involves latent variables that are predicted by observed and latent

variables,showshowthevariablesinvolvedinpredictingstudents'competenceininterpretingchemical
phenomena,arerelatedtothedependentvariableandtoeachother.

Figure2showstherelationsthatsupportedthemainhypothesisofthisstudy,iethatthreecognitive
variables(LTH,DIVandCONV)affectstudents'performance(theeffectofFDIisdiscussedlater).Apart
from

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thethreecognitivepredictors,logicalthinkingability(LTH)is,byfar,thebestaffectingbyalllatent
variables,Structure,ChangeandInterpretation.Thelatter,whichrequireshighercognitiveskills,canbe
examinedasadependentvariableaffectedbyStructureandChange,representingprerequisiteknowledge.

Logicalthinkingability(LTH)predictsallthree,Structure,ChangeandInterpretationasdepictedin
Figures 2and3. LTH operations appear to be, alongwith the prerequisite knowledge necessary for
providinginterpretationofchemicalchanges,byallaccountsadeeperunderstanding.Theseresultsare
consistent with other findings in previous studies that report the supremacy of logical thinking as a
predictorvariableforscienceachievement(Chandranetal.1987;Johnson&Lawson1998;Kangetal.,
2005).SEManalysissupportsthehypothesisthatasufficientleveloflogicalthinkingisnecessaryfor
studentstounderstandthenatureofmatteranditschemicalchanges.Thisisfurthersupportfortheroleof
LTHinscienceeducation,demonstratedalsowithanalogousmethodologicaltoolsSEM(Stamovlasiset
al.,2012).

Divergent thinking (DIV) is also a significant predictor of students' understating of chemical

phenomena,andbasedonSEMresults,itdemonstratesitseffectonthemostdemandingdimension,that
ofInterpretation.Itappearsthatdivergentstudentsarebetteratunderstandingandinterpretingchemical
phenomena.Thecontentofscientificmaterialthattheassessinginstrumentcoveredinthisstudyinvolves
adiversityofconcepts,propertiesandmodels,whichmostlyrequiredetaileddescriptionsinordertobe
understoodwhenstudiedortaught.Therefore,itisreasonabletoassumethatlinguisticskillsmayhave
playedamajorroleinstudents'understandingoftherelevantscientifictopics.Linguisticskills,suchas
comprehensionandinterpretingofascientifictext,areconsideredtobeofparamountimportancefor
reasoninginscience(Byrneetal.1994).Studentswhoshowsuperiorityinlanguagearethoughttobe
divergentthinkers(Hudson,1966;Runco,1986;Danili&Reid,2006).Linksbetweendivergenceand
science has also been reported in the literature. As Hudson (1966) characteristically points out
'convergers'tendedtochoosethesciences,but'divergers'whochoosethesciencesperformedverywell.

Weremindherethatdivergentandconvergentthinkingarenotmutuallyexclusiveastheyaretwo
differentdimensionscorrespondingtodifferentmentalresourcesandcapabilities.CONVisfoundto
affectunderstandingofChangeandInterpretation.Understandingchangeinthestructureofsubstances
requires the need to focus on a particular aspect of structure, where mental resources related to
convergence are expected to operate. Similarly, beside divergence and linguistic abilities, the
interpretationofphenomena,uptoapoint,requiresconvergencefor

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certainattributesandprocessesthatprovidethenecessaryexplanationsofthephenomenainquestion.

Concluding, it is important to state that the hypotheses are well supportedby the data. Inthe
MIMICmodel,R2is0.61,whilethecorrespondingR2inthereducedformequationsis0.42;thatis,42.0
%ofthestudents'achievementvarianceisexplainedbythelatentandobservedvariables,whileallthe
relatedmodelparametersarestatisticallysignificant(Schumacker&Lomax,2010).Thus,wemaintain
thatthefindingsofthepresentresearchareofparamountimportance,becausetheyshedlightonthe
factorshinderingstudents'understandingofchemicalphenomena.Ontheotherhand,thepresentstudy
builds on the research area of conceptual change in this particular domain, where the individual
differences,suchaslogicalthinkingandcognitivestyles,havebeenignoredinresearchhypothesesover
thelastdecades.

Implicationsforscienceeducationandresearch

Theimplicationsofthepresentresearchandfindingsconcernundoubtedlyallthosewhoareinvolvedin
scienceeducation,ieteachers,stakeholdersandresearchers.

Chemistryand,ingeneralscience,teachersneedtorealizethatlearningdifficultiesinunderstanding
chemical phenomenamay originate from individual differences, such as those under examination. A
chemistry instructor can help students with insufficient formal reasoning to overcome barriers and
obstaclesexisting,duetotheirlimitedrelevantability,byapplyingappropriateteachingmethodsthat
make abstract concepts more accessible, even through use of concrete thinking. As also discussed
elsewhere(Cantu&Herron,1978;Howe&Durr,1982;Zeitoun,1984;Tsitsipisetal.,2012),these
methodscanincludeillustrations,diagramsandmodelsthatconstitutemoreperceptibleentitiesunder
studyinordertopayattentiontocriticalattributesofabstractconcepts.Moreover,similarmethodmaybe
employedtoovercomedifficultiesduetothelackofdivergingthinking,orrestrictedlinguisticskills.

Ontheotherhand,sciencecurriculumdesignersneedsalsotobeinformedaboutalloftheaboveand
decidehowtodevelopappropriatecontentineachgrade,giventhatsomeoftheindividualdifferences,
suchaslogicalthinking(developmentallevel)evolvewithage.Alternatively,theycanusethemeansand
themethodssuggestedabovetoovercomeotherlearningobstacles.Generally,suchacurriculummay
startwithamacroscopicstudyofthesubstancesinvolvedinachemicalchangeandthencontinuewiththe
introductionofparticleideas,thusgivingtheopportunitytostudentstofacilitatethestructuresofthese
substances(Structure)andtounderstandtheirchanges(Change).Accordingtothepresentfindings,this
progresscanleadstudentstopossibleinterpretations

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ofthechemicalchange(Interpretation).Inaddition,itneedstotakeplacewithinanexplanatorycontext
(Danili&Reid,2004)andinaccordancewithstudents'age.Althoughthelatter,iethemostappropriate
age for the corresponding study of chemical changes, is a matter of wider discussion, Johnson and
Papageorgiou(2010),forinstance,suggestthatevenyoungstudentscanbeinvolvedinsuchastudy
followingaprogressivepath,similartothatpresentedabove(StructureChangeInterpretation).

Moreover,itisveryimportantforallthestakeholderstorealizethatthevariouscognitivestyles,
which determine the way a student approaches a learning task, suggest different learning strategies
(Sternberg,1997;Riding&Rayner,1998).Furthermore,themessagethat'individualdifference'research
conveystothescienceteachers,inaconstructiveteachingonchemicalchangeandinanyrelevantscience
domainaswell,isthatnosinglecorrectwayorteachingdesignmayexistwhichappealstoalllearners.

Last,butnotleast, researchneeds toextentthepresentfindingsonthe effectsof psychometric

variablestovariousdomainsofscience,completingthewholeportraitoftheeffectsofsuchindividual
differencesonstudents'competence.Thiscanimpactonbothstudentswithhighabilitiesandthosewith
learningdifficulties,providingthemwiththeappropriatesupport.Moreover,apartfromtheparticular
findingsandtheresearchquestionselucidated,thepresentstudy,evenwithitslimitations,demonstrates
theusefulnessofSEMmodellinginassessingandexplainingstudents'achievementsinscienceeducation
research.