Misconception of pre-service chemistry teachers about the concept of resonances in organic chemistry course

A descriptive quantitative research has been done to identify the level of understanding and misconceptions of the pre-service chemistry teachers related to the concept of resonance in the organic chemistry course. The subjects of the research were 51 students of State University of Malang, majoring Chemistry Education, currently in their fourth semester, 2015-2016 academic year who have taken the course of Organic Chemistry I. The instruments used in this research is a combination of 8 numbers of multiple choice tests with open answer questions and certainty of response index (CRI). The research findings revealed that there are still misconceptions found in the organic chemistry course, especially about the concept of resonance. There were several misconceptions of the pre-service chemistry teachers, such as resonance structures are in equilibrium with each other; resonance structures are two or more Lewis structures with different in arrangement of both atom and electron; resonance structures are only structures containing charged atoms; formal charge and resonance structures are not related; and the stability of resonance structures are only determined by location of charges in atoms found in such structures. There is also a lack of understanding of curved arrows notation to show electron pair movement.