Chemical Bonding Confusion

The current issue of Education in Chemistry has a great article on the issues surrounding teaching chemical bonding with some useful links to additional resources on Learn Chemistry. Several misconceptions stem from the dominance of the octet/filled shell model in the description of chemical bonding, where the over-riding consideration is the “need” to have a full outer shell. With only this consideration in mind, Stephenson and Warren explain in their article, students can easily come to the conclusion that reactions happen due to the transfer of electrons to form ionic bonds or share electrons to form covalent bonds.

This isn’t a new phenomenon, nor is this an issue restricted to school level chemistry. There is a lot of research demonstrating significant misunderstanding at third level.