THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE REFUTATION TEXT TO IMPROVE UNDERSTANDING OF THE ACID-BASE CONCEPTS FOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

Acid-base is a difficult subject to learn. It includes conceptually tricky words for the students. The theme is also considered difficult by teachers and prospective teachers in teaching and assessing student mastery. A misconception in chemistry topics is one of the biggest challenges for the teacher. This means that many students do not reach the learning objective. The acid-base question is considered one of the most challenging subjects, and there are many misunderstood concepts on this topic. Lack of understanding can be reduced by providing a simple and natural source of learning, such as a refutation text. This study aimed to determine the effectiveness of the refutation text to improve understanding of concepts and reduce misunderstanding in corrective learning on the acid-base topic for high school. There are six subtopics on acid-base content for high school. The test method used was the pre and post-project of a group, with a limited number of subjects. The test instrument used was the three-tiers of multiple choices for acid-base material (concept understanding's test). The analysis result showed that 17 of 19 students had increased knowledge of concepts and decreased misconceptions. The concept change was significant, according to Mc Nemar Test. The value of effect size (ES) based on the Crochan-Q test was 4.12, a high category. It could be concluded that refutation text is effective enough to improve students' concepts and apply them to remedial learning.