<![CDATA[This study aimed to identify students’ conceptions and misconceptions and the factors identified as contributing to misconceptions in the topic of classification of living things. This study employed a descriptive quantitative survey with a cross-sectional design. The sample was selected using cluster sampling by involving one public junior high school from each district in Pontianak City. The research subjects consisted of 180 students from six public junior high schools. The research instrument was a modified version of Nai’s (2019) three-tier diagnostic test. The results showed that misconceptions were identified in 28.64% of students on the concept of classification of living things and 20.83% on the concept of characteristics of living things. The highest percentage of misconceptions was found in the indicator of determining the relatedness of living things at the class level, which reached 43.33%. The most dominant factors identified were incomplete reasoning, accounting for 6.39% in the concept of characteristics of living things, and preconceptions, accounting for 14.76% in the concept of classification of living things. Overall, students’ misconceptions were categorized as low, with preconceptions and incomplete reasoning identified as the most dominant factors. This study concludes that misconceptions are still found in the topic of classification of living things; therefore, learning activities should provide students with opportunities to examine their initial understanding, develop complete reasoning, and classify organisms based on observable characteristics. Keywords: Classification of Living Things, Conceptions, Factors Causing Misconceptions, Misconceptions]]>
