Export für Ihre Literaturverwaltung

Übernahme per Copy & Paste



Bookmark and Share

Coordinating procedural and conceptual knowledge to make sense of word equations: understanding the complexity of a ‘simple’ chemical task at the learner’s resolution


Taber, Keith Stephen; Bricheno, Pat



Weitere Angaben:
Abstract This paper discusses the conceptual demands of an apparently straightforward task set to secondary level students – completing chemical word equations with a single omitted term. Chemical equations are of considerable importance in chemistry, and school students are expected to learn to be able to write and interpret them. However, it is recognized that many students find them challenging. The present paper explores students’ accounts of their attempts to identify the missing terms, to illuminate why working with chemical word equations is so challenging from the learner’s perspective. 300 secondary age students responded to a 5-item exercise based on chemicals and types of reactions commonly met at school level. For each item they were asked to identify the missing term in a word equation, and explain their answers. This provided a database containing more than a thousand student accounts of their rationales. Analysis of the data led to the identification of seven main classes of strategy used to answer the questions. Most approaches required the coordination of chemical knowledge at several different levels for a successful outcome; and there was much evidence both for correct answers based on flawed chemical thinking, and appropriate chemical thinking being insufficient to lead to the correct answer. It is suggested that the model reported here should be tested by more in-depth methods, but could help chemistry teachers appreciate learners’ difficulties and so offer them explicit support in selection and application of strategies when working with chemical equations.
Klassifikation Bildungs- und Erziehungssoziologie; Bildungswesen Sekundarstufe II; Unterricht, Didaktik
Sprache Dokument Englisch
Publikationsjahr 2009
Seitenangabe S. 2021-2055
Zeitschriftentitel International Journal of Science Education, 31 (2009) 15
DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09500690802326243
Status Postprint; begutachtet (peer reviewed)