Five ideas in chemical education that must die (original) (raw)
Related papers
Chemistry is regarded as a difficult subject for students. The difficulties may lie in human learning as well as in the intrinsic nature of the subject. Concepts form from our senses by noticing common factors and regularities and by establishing examples and non-examples. This direct concept formation is possible in recognising, for instance, metals or flammable substances, but quite impossible for concepts like 'element' or 'compound', bonding types, internal crystal structures and family groupings such as alcohols, ketones or carbohydrates. The psychology for the formation of most of chemical concepts is quite different from that of the 'normal' world. We have the added complication of operating on and interrelating three levels of thought: the macro and tangible, the sub micro atomic and molecular, and the representational use of symbols and mathematics. It is psychological folly to introduce learners to ideas at all three levels simultaneously. Herein lies the origins of many misconceptions. The trained chemist can keep these three in balance, but not the learner. This paper explores the possibilities, for the curriculum, of a psychological approach in terms of curricular order, the gradual development of concepts, the function of laboratory work and the place of quantitative ideas. Chemical education research has advanced enough to offer pointers to the teacher, the administrator and the publisher of how our subject may be more effectively shared with our students. [Chem. Educ. Res. Pract. Eur.: 2000, 1, 9-15]
Reflections on the Nature of the Periodic Table of the Elements: Implications in Chemical Education
Proceedings of The 18th International Electronic Conference on Synthetic Organic Chemistry, 2014
Periodic table of the elements (PTE) results essential to understand our nature and place in whole of beings. The same happens with our food, drugs, materials, etc. Ideas in PTE should be valued by the number of questions that generate. A series of questions is risen to introduce PTE helping creative thinking. A need exists to develop PTE and its education theoretical and experimental research to understand PTE properties and law. Objective of this report is to present a teaching module based on inquiry-based learning: rising questions, answers and working guide for PTE subject study. Work is performed from viewpoint of empirical didactics and uses experiential methodology based on inquiry-based learning. It accomplishes PTE experimental introduction and its application to chemistry, physics and education via atipic examples. Open problem remains in PTE: situating H (in group I but having nothing to do with alkalines). Risk is observed in PTE use. Future trends are analyzed: towards a periodic table of molecules? It is still to be explored methodological application of the approach enriching present teaching techniques: implementing new methods in learning situations is technically simple but checking usefulness in practice of teaching is extraordinarily complex requiring research that hardly began. The PTE represents an opportunity for integrating teaching and research into European Space for Higher Education (ESHE).
Chemistry Education Research and Practice
Chemistry Education Research and Practice, 2024
A recent study in Chemistry Education Research and Practice highlights the common pattern of student thinking known as ‘the octet framework’, and notes how it seems to relate to, but be inconsistent with, the octet rule: an idea commonly taught in introductory chemistry classes.The study noted the common feature of learners extending the octet rule into ‘a driving force’ for chemical change, but analysis also noted two other features of the alternative conceptual framework. It is argued here that these research findings reflect a key problem in chemistry education: one that the research community should prioritise for further investigation.
The new philosophy of chemistry and its relevance to chemical education
2001
ABSTRACT: This article tries to analyze briefly the reasons why philosophy of chemistry has only recently emerged, whereas the philosophical study of physics and biology are far better established fields of knowledge. Some key issues in contemporary philosophy of chemistry are reviewed and the ways in which this new branch of philosophy of science can be of potential benefit to chemical education are discussed.[Chem. Educ. Res. Pract.
2001
There is now a considerable literature on the ideas that learners bring to classes, showing that pupils and students hold a wide range of 'alternative conceptions' about aspects of chemistry. This body of research is potentially of great interest to practising teachers in schools, colleges and universities. Yet is has been suggested that this research does not have the effect on actual teaching practice that would seem justified. Indeed it has been argued that there tends to be a discontinuity between the work of the educational researchers uncovering 'misconceptions', and those charged with developing the curriculum and actually teaching the learners. This paper discusses a project established by the Royal Society of Chemistry (in the UK) to attempt to bridge the gap between research and classroom, in order to encourage teaching practice informed by current chemical education research. [Chem. Educ. Res. Pract. Eur.: 2001, 2, 43-51]
Taber 2009 Misconceiving Chemistry
School Science Review, 2009
Many learners find chemistry a very difficult subject, and it is common for them to form misconceptions. This is not so surprising in view of the diverse range of abstract theoretical models taught in chemistry classes. Research into learners’ chemical thinking offers insights that can help teachers think about how to best present chemical concepts
Chem. Educ. Res. Pract., 2013
This paper considers the nature of a curriculum as presented in formal curriculum documents, and the inherent difficulties of representing formal disciplinary knowledge in a prescription for teaching and learning. The general points are illustrated by examining aspects of a specific example, taken from the chemistry subject content included in the science programmes of study that are part of the National Curriculum in England (an official document published by the UK government). In particular, it is suggested that some statements in the official curriculum document are problematic if we expect a curriculum to represent canonical disciplinary knowledge in an unambiguous and authentic manner. The paper examines the example of the requirement for English school children to be taught that chemical reactions take place in only three different ways (i.e., proton transfer; electron transfer; electron sharing) and considers how this might be interpreted in terms of canonical chemistry and within the wider context of other curriculum statements, in order to make sense of neutralisation and precipitation reactions. It is argued that although target knowledge that is set out as the focus of teaching and learning cannot be identical to disciplinary knowledge, the English National Curriculum offers a representation of chemistry which distorts and confuses canonical ideas. It is suggested that the process of representing the disciplinary knowledge of chemistry as curriculum specifications is worthy of more scholarly attention.