The importance of well elaborated cognitive structures in a science knowledge domain has been noted in many studies. Therefore, the main aim of this particular study was to employ a new diagrammatic assessment approach, students’ generated systemic synthesis questions (SSynQs), to evaluate and compare the quality of high school students’ and pre-service chemistry teachers’ cognitive structures in the organic chemistry domain. We used a mixed research sample (N = 83), and SSynQs were constructed following the high school chemical curriculum in the Republic of Serbia. Besides the overall quality of the cognitive structures, the size (extent) and strength (complexity) of the conceptual structures, as external representations of cognitive structures, were also analysed. It was found that both high school students and pre-service chemistry teachers had a substantial size of the conceptual structures, showing relatively good knowledge about IUPAC naming and structures of organic compounds, except for ethers. However, the strength of the conceptual structures, or inter-correlations between organic chemistry concepts, was evaluated as weak within high school students, and medium within pre-service chemistry teachers. This resulted in the identification of three main learning difficulties (LDs), accompanied by a lack of understanding (LU) about the chemical properties and relations of organic compounds. It was surprising to find that all identified LDs and LUs within high school students also appeared within pre-service chemistry teachers. What is more, the most desired and expected cognitive structures (distinguished multidimensional cognitive structures) without LDs and LUs appeared within high school students.

中文翻译：

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利用学生产生的系统综合问题，诊断高中生和职前化学老师在有机化学中的认知结构质量

在许多研究中都提到了精心设计的认知结构在科学知识领域中的重要性。因此，这项特定研究的主要目的是采用一种新的图解评估方法，即学生生成的系统综合问题（SSynQs），以评估和比较高中生和职前化学老师在认知中的认知结构的质量。有机化学领域。我们使用了混合研究样本（N= 83），并根据塞尔维亚共和国的高中化学课程建立了SSynQ。除了认知结构的整体质量，还分析了作为认知结构的外部表示的概念结构的大小（范围）和强度（复杂性）。结果发现，高中生和职前化学老师的概念结构都相当大，除了醚以外，他们对IUPAC的命名和有机化合物的结构也有比较了解。但是，在高中生中，概念结构的强度或有机化学概念之间的相互关系被认为是薄弱的，在职前化学老师中则被认为是中等的。由此确定了三个主要的学习困难（LD），伴随着对有机化合物的化学性质和关系缺乏了解（LU）。令人惊讶地发现，在高中学生中所有已识别的LD和LU也出现在职前化学老师中。而且，在高中生中出现了没有LD和LU的最期望和期望的认知结构（可区分的多维认知结构）。