In educational research, the availability of a validated version of an original instrument in a different language offers the possibility for valid measurements obtained within the specific educational context and in addition it provides the opportunity for valid cross-cultural comparisons. The present study aimed to adapt the Science Motivation Questionnaire II (SMQ II) for application to a different cultural context (Greece), a different age group (secondary school students) and with a focus on chemistry learning. Subsequently, the Greek version of Chemistry Motivation Questionnaire II (Greek CMQ II) was used in order to investigate Greek secondary school students' motivation to learn chemistry for the first time. The sample consisted of 330 secondary school students (163 boys–167 girls), of which 146 were in lower secondary school (14–15 years old) and 184 were in upper secondary school (16–17 years old). Confirmatory factor analyses provided evidence for the validity of Greek CMQ II, as well as for configural, metric and scalar invariance, thus allowing meaningful comparisons between groups. The five motivation components of the original instrument namely grade motivation, career motivation, intrinsic motivation, self-efficacy, and self-determination were confirmed. Gender-based comparisons showed that girls had higher self-determination relative to the boys irrespective of the age group. In addition, girls in lower secondary school had higher career and intrinsic motivation relative to the boys of the same age group. Age-based comparisons showed that lower secondary school students had higher grade motivation relative to upper secondary school students.

The study of Chemistry deals essentially with three types of chemical representations: macro, submicro, and symbolic. Research has consistently shown that students experience difficulties in understanding and interpreting the representations, in making translations between different types of representations, and in constructing them. In this study, we conducted a detailed review of existing presuppositions that define what Chemical Representations are to be included in school textbooks for the purpose of enhancing the student’s understanding of Chemistry. We then conducted a detailed analysis of the Chemical Representations included in five Chemistry textbooks. The detailed analysis revealed five criteria for the evaluation of chemical representation used in school textbooks. These criteria (C1-C5) are: (C1) the type of the representation; (C2) the interpretation of the surface features; (C3) their relationship to the text; (C4) the existence and the properties of a caption; (C5) the degree of correlation between the components comprising a multiple representation. The utility of the proposed criteria was then checked against a 10th-grade Greek chemistry textbook. The five criteria cover the basic elements required for a better utilization of chemical representations in the understanding of Chemistry. The five criteria can also be used for the analysis of existing school textbooks and as an authoring tool in designing new Chemistry textbooks.

Meaningful understanding of chemistry, among others, includes the ability of an individual to think simultaneously at macroscopic, submicroscopic and symbolic levels, and this presupposes the competence to translate between different types of chemical representations. In this study, we investigated 11th grade Greek students’ and 3rd year undergraduate chemistry students’ ability to translate chemical representations from one level of chemistry (e.g., submicroscopic) into another (e.g., symbolic) concerning the basic chemical concepts: “chemical element”, “chemical compound”, “aqueous solution” and “solid state of matter”, which have already been taught in earlier grades. We followed a mixed method design in which both quantitative and qualitative research instruments were developed and used. These instruments consisted of multiple choice and open-ended questions, which included real pictures (macroscopic), symbolizations and submicroscopic diagrams. Various representations of the three types were given to the students and they were asked to choose or to construct an equivalent one of a different type. Our results showed that the 11th grade students’ ability to move across the three levels of chemistry is very low, while the 3rd year undergraduate chemistry students’ performance is higher but not satisfactory. In addition, the results obtained from the application of “translation questions” between the three levels of chemistry highlighted many students’ alternative conceptions, some of which still persist among the undergraduate students. The students showed lower performance in translations concerning the concepts “chemical compound” and “aqueous solution” than those concerning the concepts “chemical element” and “solid state of matter”. The students also showed the lowest level of performance in translating the submicroscopic representations into the symbolic ones. Generally, our results indicate that translating between different types of chemical representations is a very challenging task, which depends on students’ conceptual understanding.