Gail Chittleborough

Correct Interpretation of Chemical Diagrams Requires Transforming from One Level of Representation to Another.

Volunteer non-major chemistry students taking an introductory university chemistry course (n = 17) were interviewed about their understanding of a variety of chemical diagrams. All the students’ interviewed appreciated that diagrams of laboratory equipment were useful to show how to set up laboratory equipment. However students’ ability to explain specific diagrams at either the macroscopic or sub-microscopic level varied greatly. The results highlighted the poor level of understanding that some students had even after completing both exercises and experiments using the diagrams. The connection between the diagrams of the macroscopic level (equipment, chemicals), the sub-microscopic level (molecular) and the symbolic level (equations) was not always considered explicitly by students. The results indicate a need for chemical diagrams to be used carefully and more explicitly to ensure learner understanding. Correspondingly, students need to interpret visual chemical diagrams using meta-visualization skills linking the various levels of representation, and appreciating the role of the diagrams in explanations need to be developed.

Student-generated submicro diagrams: a useful tool for teaching and learning chemical equations and stoichiometry

This paper reports on a pedagogical approach to the teaching of chemical equations introduced to first year university students with little previous chemical knowledge. During the instruction period students had to interpret and construct diagrams of reactions at the submicro level, and relate them to chemical equations at the symbolic level with the aim of improving their conceptual understanding of chemical equations and stoichiometry. Students received instruction in symbol conventions, practice through graded tutorial tasks, and feedback on their efforts over the semester. Analysis of the student responses to formative test and summative exam items over consecutive years indicates that there was a consistent improvement in the abilities of the various cohorts to answer stoichiometry questions correctly. The responses provide evidence for diagrams of the submicro level being used as tools for reasoning in solving chemical problems, to recognise misconceptions of chemical formulae and to recognise the value of using various multiple representations of chemical reactions connecting the submicro and symbolic levels of representation. The student-generated submicro diagrams serve as a visualisation tool for teaching and learning abstract concepts in solving stoichiometric problems. We argue that the use of diagrams of the submicro level provides a more complete picture of the reaction, rather than a net summary of a chemical equation, leading to a deeper conceptual understanding.

The modelling ability of non-major chemistry students and their understanding of the sub-microscopic level

This case study examined the ability of three first year non-major chemistry students to understand chemical concepts according to Johnstone’s three levels of chemical representations of matter. Students’ background knowledge in chemistry proved to be a powerful factor in their understanding of the submicroscopic level. The results show that modelling ability is not necessarily innate, but it is a skill to be learnt. Each of the students’ modelling abilities with chemical representations improved with instruction and practice. Generally, as modelling skills improved so did students’ understanding of the relevant chemical concept. Modelling ability is described according to Grosslight et al.’s three–tiered level and the ability to traverse the three levels of chemical representation of matter. [Chem. Educ. Res. Pract., 2007, 8 (3), 274-292.]

Linking the Macroscopic and Sub-microscopic Levels: Diagrams

Explanations of chemical phenomena are nearly always focused at the sub-micro level, a level that cannot be observed, yet are normally provided with diagrams at the symbolic level. These diagrams represent the macro and sub-micro levels of matter. The connections between the macro level and the diagrams of the sub-micro level are not always apparent to students, indicating a need for chemical diagrams to be used carefully and explicitly. Having students draw and annotate chemical diagrams representing chemical phenomena at the sub-micro level can provide some insight into their understanding of chemistry at the macro level. Misinterpretation of diagrams can occur when the representations are not understood, when links are not made between the macro and sub-micro levels, or when the diagram is unfamiliar. Responding to these difficulties, strategies based on research and our experiences of teaching with diagrams are suggested for the choice and use of chemical diagrams depicting the sub-micro level in the teaching and learning of chemistry. These strategies provide opportunities for learners to construct acceptable personal mental models of the sub-micro level.

Learning How to Teach Chemistry with Technology: Pre-Service Teachers’ Experiences with Integrating Technology into Their Learning and Teaching

AbstractThe Australian Government initiative, Teaching Teachers for the Future (TTF), was a targeted response to improve the preparation of future teachers with integrating technology into their practice. This paper reports on TTF research involving 28 preservice teachers undertaking a chemistry curriculum studies unit that adopted a technological focus. For chemistry teaching the results showed that technological knowledge augmented the fundamental pedagogical knowledge necessary for teaching chemistry content. All the pre-service teachers demonstrated an understanding of the role of technology in teaching and learning and reported an increased skill level in a variety of technologies, many they had not used previously. Some students were sceptical about this learning when schools did not have technological resources available. This paper argues that teacher education courses should include technological skills that match those available in schools, as well as introduce new technologies to support a change in the culture of using technology in schools.

Representation Construction: A Guided Inquiry Approach for Science Education

This chapter outlines a guided inquiry approach, called representation construction, which was successfully developed within an Australian Research Council (ARC) project that links student learning and engagement with the knowledge production practices of science. This approach involves challenging students to generate and negotiate the representations (text, graphs, models, diagrams) that constitute the discursive practices of science, rather than focusing on the text-based, definitional versions of concepts. The representation construction approach is based on sequences of representational challenges which involve students constructing representations to actively explore and make claims about phenomena. It thus represents a more active view of knowledge than traditional structural approaches and encourages visual as well as the traditional text-based literacies. The approach has been successful in demonstrating enhanced outcomes for students, in terms of sustained engagement with ideas, and quality learning, and for teachers enhanced pedagogical knowledge and understanding of how knowledge in science is developed and communicated. This chapter draws on specific examples of how the approach was implemented in a variety of topics, such as energy, forces, astronomy and ideas about matter within junior secondary science classrooms. It will also draw on the issues associated with the adoption of the approach in laptop/tablet classrooms where part of the curriculum is delivered in the cloud.

Linking Theory and Practice Through Partnerships

This chapter reports on the important role of establishing partnerships between universities and primary schools to provide the opportunities for school-based teaching that engages pre-service primary teachers in an authentic experience of science classroom teaching and learning. It is argued that partnerships present a mechanism through which teacher educators can best enact praxis—the linking of theory and practice, in their science teacher education courses. Evidence from the STEPS project is drawn upon to demonstrate ways in which partnerships between universities and schools provide an authentic basis for pre-service teachers, teachers, and teacher educators to explore the application of theoretical ideas that underpin effective science teaching practice. Examples of partnership practice illustrate ways in which partnerships enable the successful application of pedagogical content knowledge through pre-service teachers’ planning, implementing and assessment of a learning sequence in science, and reflecting on their teaching. The important role of establishing partnerships between universities and primary schools to provide this school-based teaching and learning opportunity is acknowledged. Moreover, the essential role of the science teacher educator is recognized, as it is the teacher educator who provides active leadership for the effective connection between theory and practice that ultimately builds pre-service teacher confidence and competency to teach science. These elements of linking theory and practice through partnerships culminate in the chapter’s conclusion where the Interpretive Framework model is introduced, to aid thinking and planning around how universities and schools can work together in effective partnerships.

Models of School-Based Practice: Partnerships in Practice

This chapter describes the five individual models of school-based practice involving university–school partnerships, each presented as a single case study. Each partnership was independently developed, and there are both common and unique characteristics of the partnership and the pedagogical practices that emerge when a cross-case analysis is conducted. This variety illustrates that there is not one way to work in partnerships in teacher education. Each case study is presented including a set of pedagogical principles that are common across the case studies, and set of themes are developed that are further explored in Part 2 of this book.

Growing University–School Partnerships

The ways in which the Science Teacher Education Partnerships with Schools (STEPS) project identified and represented a guide for growing university–school partnerships are presented in this chapter. Based on evidence from the STEPS research into the independent school-based science teacher education programs of five Australian universities, components for initiating and sustaining successful partnerships were identified and described. These components are: (1) partner identification of aims and rationale for entering the partnership; (2) institutional requirements and constraints that govern partnership activities; (3) the nature and extent of the relationship between partners; (4) the nature and quality of the learning; and (5) a commitment to action to achieve the desired outcomes. The relevance of these components across three phases of partnership work, initiation, implementation, and evaluation, is also described alongside concomitant Action Planning Tools that can assist partners’ discussion and negotiation of the phases and components. Collectively, the components and phases form the Growing University–School Partnerships (GUSP) element of the STEPS Interpretive Framework. The GUSP encompasses essential planning aspects and helps to ensure that all partners’ needs and roles are considered and that the partnership achieves the desired benefits for all. Initiating, maintaining, and growing partnerships can be challenging; however, the process and tools summarised in GUSP and presented in this chapter provide a guide for others wishing to establish a new partnership or to review and/or develop an existing partnership.

Reflections on quality teaching in primary science classrooms in diverse cultural settings

Quality teaching can appear in many different forms and is arguably framed differently within settings that have distinctive cultural values and expectations. In the selection and analysis of the data for elements of quality teaching, consideration was given to each researcher’s cultural background and educational knowledge and perception of what constitutes quality, in order to bring together multiple perspectives on quality. The appearance of quality teaching differed across the cases. However, there were common characteristics but they were expressed in different ways. The characteristics of quality teaching in the sampled case studies across the three countries include: teachers’ beliefs and engagement; teacher-student interactions that are used purposefully in shaping the construction of science knowledge; the attention to evidence and requests for students to justify interpretations; the use of hands-on activities to support meaning making; the use and quality of dialogue and questioning to direct student learning; and, the co-ordinated use of representations. Despite the globalisation of education, it is argued that there is no overarching descriptor for quality teaching that is universally applicable.