School Chemistry Curriculum Research Articles

ALIGNMENT BETWEEN CURRICULUM STANDARDS AND ASSESSMENT IN UNDERSTANDING CHEMICAL REACTION PRINCIPLES AT UPPER-SECONDARY SCHOOLS

This study utilized the SEC (Survey of Enacted Curriculum) method to examine the alignment between Chinese high school chemistry curriculum standards (HSCCS) and the assessment of ‘Chemical Reaction Principles’ in the National College Entrance Examinations (NCEEs). The HSCCS and NCEEs were coded into two-dimensional matrices separately using SPSS, MATLAB, and EXCEL. The alignment coefficients were analyzed both macroscopically and specifically based on two dimensions: themes and cognitive levels. The findings indicated a generally low alignment between NCEEs and HSCCS in the ‘Chemical Reaction Principles’ domain, and no statistically significant alignment was observed. Comparing Porter alignment coefficients revealed a gradual increase in the overall alignment level between 2018–2022 NCEEs and HSCCS due to curricular reforms. Further specific analyses and comparisons highlighted significant discrepancies between NCEEs and HSCCS concerning themes and cognitive levels. Regarding themes, ‘Ionic Reactions and Equilibrium in Aqueous Solutions’ showed substantial alignment between NCEEs and HSCCS. However, for ‘Application of Ionic Reactions and Equilibrium’ and ‘Systems and Energy,’ NCEEs diverged significantly from or exceeded HSCCS requirements. Concerning cognitive levels, NCEEs demanded higher levels of student cognition compared to HSCCS. Keywords: alignment, chemical reaction principles, content analysis, curriculum standards, upper-secondary schools

Addressing the Lacuna in Critical Thinking in Kenyan Secondary School Chemistry Curriculum

Abstract: There are numerous studies on critical thinking (CT), but very few studies have been done that relate CT dispositions especially self-efficacy in classroom theory and practice, particularly in Kenya's secondary school chemistry curriculum. This paper analyzed reports from scholars, policymakers, and the curriculum reforms for Kenyan secondary schools to establish the extent to which CT is incorporated into the curriculum. These reports were used to experiment with the standard critical thinking analysis model. The analyzed categories were used to develop key theoretical propositions for the study. Theoretical propositions formed an explanatory theory that supported the analysis. From the analysis, although education reforms recognize CT as a key skill, it is not clear how CT self-efficacy should be developed in Kenyan secondary school chemistry learners. In this paper, we argue that CT can only be realized in the Chemistry classroom if the learning approach is learner-centered as opposed to the current teacher-centered approach. CT self-efficacy indicators also ought to be infused into the secondary school education curriculum for chemistry learners to acquire CT skills.

Turkish Pre-service Teachers’ Understanding of Daily Life Phenomena Related to Chemistry and Compatibility with the Current Chemistry Curriculum

The aim of this study is to determine Turkish pre-service science teachers’ levels of chemical explanations of various daily life phenomena and to investigate whether these examples are in accordance with the high school chemistry curriculum in Turkey. This study was carried out with descriptive research methods. The participants are 71 freshmen pre-service science teachers in a state university in Turkey. The data of the study were collected with the “Chemical Explanations of Daily Phenomena” Questionnaire previously developed in the literature. The phenomena in the questionnaire were related to chemistry concepts such as diffusion, temperature, combustion reactions and the law of conservation of mass, isotopes, reaction rate, redox reactions, and mixtures and solutions. The answers were analyzed in three categories: correct, wrong, and can’t determine and the frequencies and percentages of the categories were determined. Also, the learning outcomes in the latest version of the Turkish high school chemistry curriculum were examined in order to determine whether they were related to the chemistry concepts in the questionnaire. Document analysis was utilized to analyze the learning outcomes in the chemistry curriculum. The findings of the study revealed that most of the pre-service teachers answered correctly the questions that are compatible with the chemistry curriculum. Their misconceptions were mostly related to heat transfer and specific heat capacity, the law of conservation of mass, and heavy water and isotopes. The findings indicated that future curriculum changes should integrate some important chemistry concepts closely related to everyday life, such as radioactivity and heat transfer.

Incorporating Materials Chemistry and CAD into the High School Chemistry Curriculum via 3D Printing and TiO2 Nanotube Fabrication

Incorporating Materials Chemistry and CAD into the High School Chemistry Curriculum via 3D Printing and TiO₂ Nanotube Fabrication

Investigation of students’ cognitive structures concerning the topic of physical and chemical changes: a cross-level study

The topic of physical and chemical changes is one of the basic and essential issues of both the lower-secondary school science curriculum and the upper-secondary school chemistry curriculum in many countries. The focus of the present study is to investigate the students' cognitive structures on the topic of physical and chemical changes at different grade levels and to compare how the aspects of students' cognitive structures differ at 8th, 9th, and 10th-grade levels. The data were collected from a total of 388 students (126 8th-graders, 129 9th-graders, and 133 10th-graders) through using a word association test (WAT) which contains eight stimulus words. Both the relatedness coefficient (RC) method and the response frequency mapping method were used in the analysis of the data and mapping of the group cognitive structures of the students. The variables related to the concepts or ideas contained, the connections between the concepts, and the information processing skills, which are the three main aspects in defining the cognitive structures, are compared according to the grade level. It has been concluded that the cognitive structure of the 9th-grade students is the most comprehensive, and integrated, and has a higher information retrieval rate. On the other hand, when the data obtained from both the RC values and the response frequency mappings were examined, it was found that there were also several similarities in the cognitive structures of the three grade levels. For instance, the relationship level of the stimulus word 'energy' with other stimulus words is very weak at all grade levels.

Kimya Ders Kitaplarındaki Deneylerin 2018 Kimya Dersi Öğretim Programının Deneysel Çalışmaya Yönelik Amacı Açısından Analizi ve Fen Lisesi Durumu ile Karşılaştırılması

This study aims to examine to what extent the goal of the 2018 Chemistry Curriculum for experimental studies overlaps with the acquisitions of the curriculum and to what extent upper-secondary school chemistry textbooks (high school) are prepared to meet this purpose. The study also seeks to assess the extent to which the activities in the chemistry textbooks are written to meet the four dimensions (gaining data by experimenting, inferring using data, interpretation, and generalization) of the 2018 Chemistry Curriculum. Finally, it is intended to compare this situation with the 2018 Science High School Chemistry Curriculum and determine the similarities and differences. For these purposes, the acquisitions including the experimental studies in the 2018 Chemistry Curriculum were determined at first. Then, the experiments in the 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th-grade chemistry textbooks were analyzed. Two ways were used for textbook analysis. In the first stage, it was defined to what extent the acquisitions in the 2018 Chemistry Curriculum and the experiments in the textbooks overlapped and how the experiments were distributed according to the units. In the second stage, the experiments in the textbooks were analyzed according to the four dimensions of the 2018 Chemistry Curriculum by means of a rubric. it was concluded that the acquisitions that include explanations about experimental studies are approximately 16% of the total acquisitions of the 2018 Chemistry Curriculum. Additionally, as a result of this analysis for SPSs, it is found that the experiments mostly focus on the basic SSBs, and they focus especially on “observation” and “measurement” skills.

The Main Trend of the Reform and Development of the Current Middle School Chemistry Curriculum

The Main Trend of the Reform and Development of the Current Middle School Chemistry Curriculum

Yükseköğretim Kurumları Sınavında Yer Alan Kimya Sorularının 2018 Yılı Kimya Dersi Öğretim Programı Kazanımlarına Göre Analizi

Bu çalışmada, 2019-2021 yıllarında TYT (Temel Yeterlilik Testi) ve AYT (Alan Yeterlilik Testi) sınavlarında yer alan kimya testi soruları 2018 yılı Ortaöğretim Kimya Dersi Öğretim Programı’nın kazanımları açısından analiz edilmiş ve sınavların kapsam geçerliliğinin konu boyutu açısından değerlendirmesi yapılmıştır. Çalışma kapsamında 21 tanesi TYT ve 39 tanesi AYT olmak üzere toplam 60 soru analiz edilmiştir. Çalışma sonunda TYT kimya testi sorularının büyük oranda 9 ve 10. sınıf kazanımlarından hazırlandığı görülürken, AYT kimya testi sorularının ağırlıklı olarak 11 ve 12. sınıf kazanımlarından hazırlandığı belirlenmiştir. TYT-2019 kimya testi sorularının 2018 yılı Kimya Dersi Öğretim Programı toplam kazanımlarının %11,8’ini, TYT-2020 ve TYT-2021 kimya testi sorularının sırasıyla programın tüm kazanımlarının %13,4’ünü ve %8,7’sini kapsadığı tespit edilmiştir. AYT-2019, AYT-2020 ve AYT-2021 kimya testi sorularının sırasıyla 2018 yılı Kimya Dersi Öğretim Programı toplam kazanımlarının %22,0; %18,1 ve %17,3’ünden hazırlandığı belirlenmiştir. Ayrıca “Doğa ve Kimya”, “Enerji Kaynakları ve Bilimsel Gelişmeler” ünitelerinin kazanımlarından 2019-2021 yılları arasındaki YKS sınavlarının tamamında kimya testlerinde hiçbir soruya yer verilmediği gözlemlenmiştir. AYT-2019 ve AYT-2020 sınavlarının kimya testlerinde en fazla sayıda kazanıma yönelik soru hazırlanan ünitenin “Kimyasal Tepkimelerde Denge” olduğu belirlenmiştir.

An Action Research Teacher’s Journey while Integrating Green Chemistry into the High School Chemistry Curriculum

In recent years, a growing number of publications have emerged discussing how to integrate education for sustainable development (ESD) and systems thinking into science education in general, and chemistry education in particular. However, when it comes to more specific fields of chemistry education, most studies focus almost exclusively on higher education. Examples of ESD units in secondary chemistry teaching are mostly limited to single topics. They often do not explicitly deal with the theoretical concepts behind green or sustainable chemistry. This paper reports on a long-term initiative to develop secondary chemistry education. This effort attempts to thoroughly integrate ESD based on the concept of green chemistry into high school programs. The project is based on teacher-centered action research, a cyclical development and research approach within authentic classroom practice. The process was supported by an academic chemistry education research group and a network of experienced action research teachers. The current paper describes the development of a teaching sequence for first-year upper secondary chemistry education. Elements of the development and selected findings from the accompanying feedback processes are reported.

Comparison of Turkey and Kosovo Secondary School Science Curriculum in the Context of Chemistry Learning Area

In this study, Turkey and Kosovo secondary school science curricula were compared in the context of chemistry learning area and it was aimed to analyze the similarities and differences in terms of sub-learning areas, distribution of units according to grade levels, course hours, number of achievements, content and teaching techniques. In this study, in which document analysis, one of the qualitative rese-arch methods, was used, written and printed science programs of both countries were considered. As a result of the study, it is seen that the lower secondary education (secondary school) chemistry curricu-lum in Kosovo is numerically higher than the Turkish secondary school chemistry curriculum in terms of the distribution of units and units, course hours and achievements. In Turkey, at the secondary school level, chemistry is included in the natural science group, and the subjects include spiral learning, a low number of achievements, process-oriented constructivist and competency skills are tried to be gained. In terms of teaching techniques, partially similar techniques and methods are applied in both countries. Rapid advances in science and technology, occurring innovations and developments in the world are directly proportional to the higher quality of science education programs. In addition to this, it is thought that the participation of the Ministry of National Education's educational investments and projects in Kosovo within the scope of agreements between the two countries, which have historical and kinship ties with Turkey, and comparing the curriculum of Kosovo with the curriculum of develo-ping countries such as Turkey, will contribute to the curriculum of Kosovo by comparing the curriculum of Kosovo with the curriculum of developing countries such as Turkey.

The Effect of Online Project Based Learning on Students’ Character

The Covid-19 pandemic that emerged in early 2020, has had a very significant impact on various sectors, including education. Each country shifts learning activities at various levels from face-to-face (offline) to online learning. Achieving competences according to the high school chemistry curriculum is quite difficult to do through online learning, especially for skills and attitudes competency aspects. Chemistry learning during pandemic tended to focus on attaining the knowledge aspect. It needs attention, lest during the pandemic, there will be a degradation of students’ character. It is necessary to design chemistry learning that can facilitate the development of students’ character. One of the efforts that can be done is implementing a variety of online learning models. Project based learning can be an alternative strategy to facilitate the development of students’ character. It is necessary to conduct a study to determine the implementation strategy and impact of project based online learning, because it is not easy to apply the syntax in online learning. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of project based online learning on students’ character. The study was a quasi-experimental, with posttest only design. The research population was students of class XI of a public high school in Sleman Regency. The research sample was determined by using purposive sampling technique. The data collection instrument was a questionnaire. The data analysis technique used the independent sample T-test. Based on the research data, it is concluded that there is no difference on students’ character between the implementation of project based online learning and conventional online learning. Keywords: online learning, project-based learning, prophetic character

Manifestation of Three Visions of Scientific Literacy in a Senior High School Chemistry Curriculum: A Content Analysis Study

Manifestation of Three Visions of Scientific Literacy in a Senior High School Chemistry Curriculum: A Content Analysis Study

Estado da arte: contextualização do açaí no ensino de química e a utilização de espaços não-formais no ensino médio

The main theme of this work was the contextualization of Açaí in Chemistry Teaching / The Use of Non-Formal Spaces in High School from the bibliographic review, characterized as the state of the art method, of a series of documents carefully chosen and methodically evaluated among them, 10 (ten) documents were chosen that present experiences, statements and teaching reflections about this lineage of research for the Teaching of Chemistry and its importance as an effective method within basic education. This study contributes to the realization of new reflections from the natural element such as açaí that contributes in some regions to the economy, culture and social reflection. Aiming at all these factors, it can collaborate in the transmission of knowledge, as an educational practice carried out in non-formal places, in addition to covering a contextualization aspect in various program contents present in the high school chemistry curriculum.

Newly elected Chinese Academy of Sciences academicians in chemistry division in 2021

Newly elected Chinese Academy of Sciences academicians in chemistry division in 2021

Performance Evaluation of Senior Secondary School Students’ Mock Examination Questions in Chemistry in Adamawa State, Nigeria

The study examined the content validity of Chemistry MOCK examination questions for senior secondary school students set by Adamawa State Educational Resource Centre (ERC), Yola. Students have been passing the MOCK examinations but unfortunately performance poorly in the subject in their final year external examination like WAEC in Adamawa State. The main objective of the study was to determine the representativeness of the topics in the senior secondary school Chemistry curriculum in the MOCK examination question papers from 2015 to 2019. Three research questions were raised and two research hypotheses formulated. An ex-post facto research design was used for the study. The population of the study comprised all MOCK examination questions in Chemistry and those involved in handling Chemistry MOCK question papers which includes both essay and objective examination questions. The research instrument used for the study was MOCK examination question papers in Chemistry in order to determine whether the contents are as indicated in Chemistry curriculum for senior secondary schools. The validity of the instrument was determined by some experts. And for the reliability of the instrument, a trial-test was conducted where a reliability index of 0.75 was obtained using Cronbach alpha. The research questions were answered using descriptive statistics while the null hypotheses were tested using Chi-square. The findings of study revealed that the content validity of the chemistry MOCK examination questions has not yet improved in order to prepare the students of senior secondary schools in Adamawa state for WAEC, NECO or NABTEB examinations.

Relationship between consciousness about environmental education concepts in secondary school chemistry curriculum and attitude of students towards environment

The study aim to investigate the relationship between consciousness about environmental education concepts in senior secondary school chemistry curriculum and attitude of chemistry students towards the environment in Kwara state. The study deploys descriptive survey design. Using Simple random sampling and Stratified proportionate sampling techniques. A sample of four hundred (400) senior secondary school science students and 16 senior secondary schools was used for the study. Two structured Questionnaires with titles” Students Attitude to Environment Questionnaire (SAEQ) and Students Consciousness towards Environment Questionnaire (SCEQ)” were developed by the researcher. The validity coefficient of SAEQ and SCEQ was 0.801 and 0.765. These were obtained using Cronbach-alpha method. Four research questions and four null hypotheses guided the study. Data collected were analysis using mean standard deviation, one way ANOVA and Pearson Product moment correlation (PPMC). The findings from the study revealed that the student environmental consciousness influenced their attitude towards the environment and, that student’s continuous exhibition of attitude towards the environment is rooted on their inadequate consciousness or knowledge of the causes and effects of environmental problems, it was recommended that Ministry of Education updates the curriculum of Senior Secondary School managing Environmental Education (EE) content.

Connecting Chemistry to Mathematics by Establishing the Relationship between Conductivity and Concentration in an Interdisciplinary, Computer-Based Project for High School Chemistry Students

Here, we present an interdisciplinary educational project intended for high school chemistry that is focused on the establishment of a mathematical model to describe the relationship between conductivity and concentration, while linking chemistry to mathematics with the help of computer software. The project was designed to help high school students engage in methods and comprehend advanced topics beyond the typical high school chemistry curriculum, as well as to resolve a problem that no single disciplinary perspective is able to solve. This project provided students with a simple method to build mathematical models, which could be used to help them discover the relationship between discrete experimental data and mathematical equations. A postinstructional survey showed that, after completing the project, more students knew how to construct mathematical equations that fit discrete data.

Development and validation of an instrument for measuring Chinese chemistry teachers’ perceptions of pedagogical content knowledge for teaching chemistry core competencies

This study aims to develop and validate a new instrument for measuring chemistry teachers’ perceptions of Pedagogical Content Knowledge for teaching Chemistry Core Competencies (PCK_CCC) in the context of new Chinese chemistry curriculum reform. The five constructs and the initial 17 items in the new instrument were contextualized by the PCK pentagon model (Park S. and Oliver J. S., (2008), J. Res. Sci. Teach., 45(7), 812–834.) with the notions of the Senior High School Chemistry Curriculum Standards (Ministry of Education, P. R. China, 2017). 210 chemistry teachers from a University-Government-School initiative voluntarily participated in this study. The findings from item analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and correlation analysis provide sufficient empirical evidence to support the convergent and discriminant validity of the instrument. The concurrent validity of the instrument was confirmed by testing mean differences among teacher demographic groups. The high Cronbach's coefficient alpha values show good internal consistency reliability of the instrument. Integrating the evidence from theory and data, we documented a valid and reliable PCK_CCC instrument with five constructs consisting of 16 items. This study provides a thorough process for developing and validating instruments that address teacher perceptions of their PCK in a particular subject domain. The valid and reliable PCK_CCC instrument would be beneficial for teacher education researchers and teacher professional programs.

A Case Study of University Professors' Perceptions on the connection between High School and University Chemistry Curriculum

A Case Study of University Professors' Perceptions on the connection between High School and University Chemistry Curriculum

The change in the intended Senior High School Chemistry Curriculum in China: focus on intellectual demands

Using Revised Bloom's Taxonomy (RBT), this study has examined the intellectual demands of the Senior High School Chemistry Curriculum (SHSCC) in China from a socio-historical perspective. Document analysis was adopted as a research method to analyze knowledge types and cognitive processes, the two dimensions of the cognitive learning objectives in the three curriculum documents of the SHSCC officially released in 1996, 2003, and 2018 respectively. The changing tendencies of the two dimensions have been found over the past two decades. As for knowledge types, Factual knowledge has increased, whilst Conceptual knowledge has decreased and Procedural knowledge has dramatically increased, and Meta-cognitive knowledge has appeared recently although in a low ratio. With regard to cognitive processes, the lower levels have been decreased, while the higher levels have been increased. Moreover, explanations have been provided for the association between the orientations of the chemistry curriculum and the extents of intellectual demands embodied in the cognitive learning objectives in these versions of the SHSCC. From these findings, it is concluded that the SHSCC in China has become increasingly demanding during the period under study and the newly emergent SHSCC is more challenging than its predecessors. The implications of this study for curriculum researchers, curriculum developers and chemistry teachers are discussed in the last part of this paper.