Prospective pedagogy for teaching chemical bonding for smart and sustainable learning

As an important subject in the curriculum, many students find chemistry concepts difficult to learn and understand. Chemical bonding especially is important in understanding the compositions of chemical compounds and related concepts and research has shown that students struggle with this concept. In this theoretical paper based on analysis of relevant science education research, textbooks, and our classroom observations and teaching experiences, the authors argue that the difficulty in learning chemical bonding concepts is associated with the sequence (ionic, covalent and polar covalent bonding) in which students are taught because this sequence receives little support from constructivist theories of learning. Consequently, the paper proposes a sequence to teach chemical bonding (covalent, polar covalent and ionic bonding) for effective and sustainable learning. In this sequence, the concepts are developed with minimum reorganisation of previously learned information, using a format which is claimed to be easy for students to learn. For teaching these concepts, the use of electronegativity and the overlap of atomic orbitals for all types of bonding have also been stressed. The proposed sequence and emphasis on electronegativity and atomic orbital overlap meets the criteria for teaching and learning of concepts based on the psychology of learning including the theory of constructivism necessitating the construction of new knowledge using related prior knowledge. It also provides a better linkage between the bonding concepts learned at secondary and tertiary levels. Considering these proposed advantages for teaching, this sequence is recommended for further research into effective and sustainable teaching.

[1]  A. J. Ihde,et al.  Chemical Bonding , 1972, Nature.

[2]  Keith S. Taber,et al.  BUILDING THE STRUCTURAL CONCEPTS OF CHEMISTRY: SOME CONSIDERATIONS FROM EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH , 2001 .

[3]  Karen Timberlake.  General, Organic, and Biological Chemistry: Structures of Life , 2001 .

[4]  Hans-Dieter Barke,et al.  Misconceptions in Chemistry: Addressing Perceptions in Chemical Education , 2009 .

[5]  O. R. Anderson,et al.  A flow-map method of representing cognitive structure based on respondents' narrative using science content , 1993 .

[6]  Onno De Jong,et al.  Representations of chemical bonding models in school textbooks – help or hindrance for understanding? , 2013 .

[7]  David F. Treagust,et al.  Exploring Tertiary Students' Understanding of Covalent Bonding , 2002 .

[8]  Keith S. Taber,et al.  Upper Secondary Students' Understanding of the Basic Physical Interactions in Analogous Atomic and Solar Systems , 2013 .

[9]  Harkirat S. Dhindsa,et al.  Use of the interactive whiteboard in constructivist teaching for higher student achievement , 2006 .

[10]  David Symington,et al.  Lecturer Perceptions of Student Difficulties in a First-Year Chemistry Course , 1996 .

[11]  K. Taber.  Multiple frameworks?: Evidence of manifold conceptions in individual cognitive structure , 2000 .

[12]  Avi Hofstein,et al.  Teaching and learning the concept of chemical bonding , 2010 .

[13]  A. Watson,et al.  Seeing an Exercise as a Single Mathematical Object: Using Variation to Structure Sense-Making , 2006 .

[14]  Sultan Hassanal,et al.  TEACHER COMMUNICATION IN BRUNEIAN SECONDARY SCIENCE CLASSES: WAIT-TIME , 2010 .

[15]  Oduola Abiola,et al.  Improving Classroom Practices Using Our Knowledge of How the Brain Works. , 2012 .

[16]  Keith S. Taber,et al.  Revisiting the chemistry triplet: drawing upon the nature of chemical knowledge and the psychology of learning to inform chemistry education , 2013 .

[17]  Deborah Peek-Brown,et al.  Learning Progressions as a Guide for Developing Meaningful Science Learning: A New Framework for Old Ideas , 2013 .

[18]  Bruce E. Bursten,et al.  Chemistry the central science: a broad perspective , 2006 .

[19]  David P. Ausubel,et al.  The Acquisition and Retention of Knowledge: A Cognitive View , 2000 .

[20]  Georgios Tsaparlis,et al.  THE STATES-OF-MATTER APPROACH (SOMA) TO INTRODUCTORY CHEMISTRY , 2008 .

[21]  A. Lockey,et al.  Teaching and learning , 2001, Emergency medicine journal : EMJ.

[22]  Keith S. Taber,et al.  Student Conceptions of Ionic Bonding: Patterns of thinking across three European contexts , 2012 .

[23]  J. Krajcik,et al.  Developing a new teaching approach for the chemical bonding concept aligned with current scientific and pedagogical knowledge , 2007 .

[24]  M. Nakhleh.  Why some students don't learn chemistry: Chemical misconceptions , 1992 .

[25]  Rosária Justi,et al.  Modelling, teachers' views on the nature of modelling, and implications for the education of modellers , 2002 .

[26]  Pinar Seda Cetin.  Pre- service Science Teachers’ Conceptions of Scientific Method , 2012 .

[27]  F. Mathy,et al.  What’s magic about magic numbers? Chunking and data compression in short-term memory , 2012, Cognition.

[28]  David F. Treagust,et al.  Conceptual Understanding of Bruneian Tertiary Students: Chemical Bonding and Structure , 2009 .

[29]  Tami Levy Nahum,et al.  A New "Bottom-Up" Framework for Teaching Chemical Bonding , 2008 .

[30]  J. Piaget,et al.  The principles of genetic epistemology , 1972 .

[31]  Haluk Özmen,et al.  Some Student Misconceptions in Chemistry: A Literature Review of Chemical Bonding , 2004 .

[32]  Michael O. Hurst,et al.  How We Teach Molecular Structure to Freshmen , 2002 .

[33]  Dorothy L. Gabel,et al.  Improving Teaching and Learning through Chemistry Education Research: A Look to the Future , 1999 .

[34]  John Dunlosky,et al.  Improving Students’ Learning With Effective Learning Techniques: Promising Directions From Cognitive and Educational Psychology , 2012 .

[35]  Eric Jensen.  Brain-Based Learning and Teaching , 1995 .

[36]  David F. Treagust,et al.  Learners' Mental Models of Chemical Bonding , 2001 .

[37]  Alex H. Johnstone,et al.  Chemistry About Us , 1981 .

[38]  Michael W. Klymkowsky,et al.  The Trouble with Chemical Energy: Why Understanding Bond Energies Requires an Interdisciplinary Systems Approach , 2013, CBE life sciences education.

[39]  Saouma BouJaoude,et al.  Secondary school students' difficulties with stoichiometry , 2000 .

[40]  George M. Bodner,et al.  Why changing the curriculum may not be enough , 1992 .

[41]  John William Hill.  Chemistry for changing times , 1972 .