Peter E. Childs

What's difficult about chemistry? An Irish perspective

This semi-longitudinal investigation identified the chemistry topics that the majority of Irish chemistry pupils/students find difficult, from Junior Certificate level (age 15/16 years) right the way through to University level (age 18+). Pupils/students completed a five point, Likert-type questionnaire listing the topics covered in the different chemistry courses, which asked them whether they found each topic difficult or easy. They were also asked to identify which five topics they found most difficult, ranked 1 to 5. This paper highlights the topics that Irish pupils/students find difficult in chemistry. Topics identified by Irish students are similar to results of studies carried out in the UK by Ratcliffe and in Scotland by Johnstone. This study indicates that a number of topics ranked high in terms of perceived difficulty in both the Leaving Certificate chemistry pupils and University chemistry students’ lists. These topics were Volumetric Analysis Calculations, Redox Reactions and Concentration of Solutions. The persistence of these topics being seen as difficult throughout the pupils’/students’ experience of chemistry indicates that problems associated with these topics have never truly been addressed. Other findings indicate that the mathematical ability of the pupils/students has an effect on the topics pupils/students chose as difficult or very difficult.

Improving chemical education: turning research into effective practice

Despite several decades of research into the teaching and learning of Science/Chemistry, at both secondary and tertiary level, it has had relatively little impact on practice. In many countries interest in studying Science at school and university is falling, and there is concern over falling numbers and falling standards. There is a changing student population at tertiary level – in many cases more diverse in ability and background, less well prepared in mathematics and science, and often less motivated. This presents problems in maintaining both adequate numbers of graduates and academic standards. Many academics have not adapted sufficiently to this change in the student population. Today’s challenge is how to turn the findings of research on teaching and learning into effective practice; in other words, how to make the teaching and learning of chemistry more evidence-based, as distinct from the sole preoccupation with content. This has implications for the curriculum, for teaching methods and for assessment. One major problem is that much education research is never read by practitioners and even less is applied. This article identifies some of the barriers to implementing the findings of education research and also some of the successes. Ignorance of what is known about teaching and learning chemistry and an unwillingness to change are two main factors. At third-level, teaching needs to be research-led not only in relation to its subject (a contemporary mantra) but also research-led in relation to the process of teaching and learning. There needs to be more effective communication of research findings and exemplars of turning research into practice.

Chemistry and Everyday Life: Relating Secondary School Chemistry to the Current and Future Lives of Students

In 1985 the Association for Science Education (ASE) in the U.K. published a blueprint for Education through Science (ASE, 1985) where they pointed out that science education should have “relevance: science education should draw extensively on the everyday experience of pupils.” In 1986 we ran a conference for Irish chemistry teachers on ‘Everyday Chemistry’ (Childs, 1986).