The present study investigates the association of students’ fundamental ideas and misconceptions about ontological features of atoms’ identity and behavior with the formation of their portrayed representations of the atomic structure. Participants (n = 421), were secondary education students in eighth, tenth and twelfth grades. Students’ portrayed representations of the atomic structure were accessed through drawings tasks, while their understanding of the ontological features of atom is measured via a specially designed questionnaire. Latent Class Analysis (LCA), a psychometric method was applied to the elementary features of the portrayed representations, in order to classify them and test the potential coherence of their representations regarding atomic structure. The LC analysis revealed three latent classes, which showed a relative coherence in three of the anticipated models, ‘Particle model’, ‘Nuclear model’ and ‘Bohrʼs model’. Moreover, students’ conceptions and misconception about the ontological features of atom were used as covariates in the LCA and their effects on the above mentioned class-memberships were estimated. Results indicate a significant effect of students’ conceptions of the atomic ontological features on their portrayed representations of the atomic structure. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.
