| Summary: | Many students have considered the structure of an atom as a difficult topic since it includes abstract concepts. Therefore, students construct mental models in their mind in order to grasp the structure of atoms and these mental models interfere with their learning. This study aims to explore mental models of the high school students and university students related to the atom by examining the studies in the literature in order to portray how students perceive the structure of atoms. In this context, the studies related to the mental models were documented and analyzed by using content analysis. In order to categorize the studies with respect to some certain characteristics, the main themes were formed by the researchers and the analyses were conducted based on these themes. Examining the mental models of the students, it was observed that they drew a solid sphere or some electrons orbiting around the nucleus. Moreover, electron cloud model were the least drawn model even though it was included within the educational programs. Besides, some misconceptions were determined within the studies by examining the mental models of the students. Most of the researchers conducting these studies recommended that modeling should be included more in the instructions of the teachers. Moreover, they suggested that current educational programs should be rearranged in order to eliminate the possible misconceptions pertinent to the structure of an atom.
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