We report here on an exploratory study done with a sample of university students (N = 140) which sought to explore their understanding of the term ‘coordination number’, a concept encountered in the topic of transition metals chemistry, through a simple open-ended question. The findings show that the conceptual space related to the conceptions students harbour span the interval from non-canonical to canonical limits. That is, the responses from the students include incorrect, partially correct and correct answers. Additionally, instructor commentary, based on teaching experience acquired with a number of cohorts of students, is provided for the range of conceptions encountered, a departure somewhat from the traditional approach, and among the very few, if any, studies, which use such an approach. Those conceptions that are partially correct cannot strictly be labelled as alternative conceptions as it is argued that these can still be used by students to solve problems set in certain contexts on the topic.

中文翻译：

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绘制由学生对过渡金属配合物的配位数的理解所形成的概念空间：探索性研究

我们在这里报告了对大学生样本（N= 140），它试图通过一个简单的开放式问题来探索他们对术语“配位数”的理解，“配位数”是过渡金属化学主题中遇到的一个概念。研究结果表明，与学生所怀有的观念相关的观念空间跨越了从非规范到规范极限的区间。也就是说，学生的回答包括不正确，部分正确和正确的答案。此外，根据在众多学生中获得的教学经验，提供了讲师讲解，涵盖了所遇到的各种概念，与传统方法有所不同，并且在极少数（如果有的话）研究中使用了这种方法。方法。