1

Aust. J. Ed. Chem., 2004, 64,

2

Aust. J. Ed. Chem., 2004, 64,

Introduction

The Australian Journal of Education in Chemistry publishes refereed articles contributing to education in Chemistry.Suitable topics for publication in the Journal will include aspects of chemistry content, technology in teaching chemistry,innovations in teaching and learning chemistry, research in chemistry education, laboratory experiments, chemistry ineveryday life, news and other relevant submissions.

Manuscripts are peer reviewed anonymously by at least two reviewers in addition to the Editors. These notes are a briefguide to contributors. Contributors should also refer to recent issues of the Journal and follow the presentation therein.

Articles

Articles should not exceed six pages in the printed formincluding tables illustrations and references - ca. 5000words for a text only document. Short, concisely writtenarticles are very welcome. Please use headings andsubheadings to give your article structure.

1. We prefer to handle all submissions electronically. Ourpreference is for Microsoft Word files in Mac format.However, you can send files from any commonWindows, DOS or Macintosh word processor.

2. On another separate page provide an abstract of 50 to100 words;

3. All photographs should be scanned and saved in JPEGformat.

4. All chemistry structures, and schemes should followthe guidelines set for ACS publications. It is preferredthat Schemes, Tables etc be arranged to fit in a column7 cm wide, although full page width will be accepted.

Guide for contributors to the Australian Journal of Education in Chemistry

Reference Styles

AusJEC reference styles are based on the most recentedition of the Publication Manual of the AmericanPsychological Association OR the Journal of ChemicalEducation.

Copyright

Your manuscript should not have been published alreadynor should it have been submitted for publicationelsewhere. If AusJEC publishes your manuscript then itwill become the copyright of the Royal AustralianChemical Institute. The RACI will, however, allow youto use the contents of your paper for most reasonable non-commercial purposes.

Robert Bucat,Chemistry, School of Biomedicaland Chemical Sciences,University of Western Australia,35 Stirling HighwayCrawley WA 6009, Australia.bucat@chem.uwa.edu.auPhone: (+61)(8) 9380 3158Fax: (+61)(8) 9380 3432

AusJEC Team

Mauro MocerinoDepartment of Applied Chemistry,Curtin University of Technology,GPO Box U1987Perth WA 6845, Australia.m.mocerino@curtin.edu.auPhone (+61)(8) 9266 3125Fax (+61)(8) 9266 2300

All manuscripts should be sent to Mauro MocerinoAusJEC Reviewing Panel

Vicky Barnett, AustraliaGlen Chittleborough, AustraliaDeborah Corrigan, AustraliaGeoffrey T. Crisp, AustraliaBette Davidowitz, South Africa

Onno de Jong, The NetherlandsKitty Drok, AustraliaLoretta L. Jones, USAFaan Jordaan, South AfricaScott Kable, AustraliaBob Morton, AustraliaMark Ogden, Australia

John Oversby, U.K.W (Bill). P. Palmer, AustraliaMarissa Rollnick, South AfricaJanet Scott, AustraliaRoy Tasker, AustraliaTony Wright, New ZealandBrian Yates, Australia

Editors

David TreagustScience and MathematicsEducation Centre,Curtin University of Technology,GPO Box U1987Perth WA 6845, Australia.D.Treagust@smec.curtin.edu.auPhone: (+61)(8) 9266 7924Fax: (+61)(8) 9266 2503

3

Aust. J. Ed. Chem., 2004, 64,

In this issue ……….

RACI Chemical Education Division Standing Committee -Contact Details.

Mauro Mocerino, Chair, m.mocerino@curtin.edu.auKieran Lim Deputy Chair lim@deakin.edu.auJanette Head, Secretary, jhead@chem.uwa.edu.auMaree Baddock, Treasurer, mbaddock@exchange.curtin.edu.auGreg Klease, Immediate Past Chair, g.klease@cqu.edu.auTania van den Ancker, Qld Chemical Education Group Chair, ancker@usq.edu.auGeoff Salem, ACT Chemical Education Group Chair, geoff.salem@anu.edu.auAlan Arnold, ACT representative a.arnold@anu.edu.auAlasdair Hey, NSW Chemical Education Group Chair, ajhey@ozonline.com.auGeorgia Deretic, NSW representative deretic@hotmail.comBill Palmer, NT representative, bill.palmer@ntu.edu.auIan Mc Mahon, SA Chemical Education Group Chair, mcmahon@tsc.sa.edu.auGlen Chittleborough, SA representative glench@senet.com.auBrian Yates, Tas representative, Brian.Yates@utas.edu.auGreg Dicinoski, Past Conference chair, greg.dicinoski@utas.edu.auLisa Lozano, Vic Chemical Education Group Chair, Lisa.Lozano@vcp.monash.edu.auJudy Gordon, Vic representative, judyg@deakin.edu.au

Four of the published papers were presented at the RACIChemical Education conference in Hobart in February2004. In the first of these de Jong describes a study intoviews of the education research-practice gap. Participantsin the study were asked their opinion on the reasons forthis gap and for possible actions to bridge the gap. Onefactor behind the gap was a need to survive. For teachers,this stems from insufficient time to read the researchliterature or to apply research findings. For the researcher,there is the need to publish in high impact journals andpresent at research conferences, neither reaching manyteachers. Also, both teachers and researchers hadunrealistic expectations of each other. Improving thecommunication between researchers and teachers was thefocus of suggestions for bridging the gap. These includedactions for teachers and researchers.

Beasley presents a paper on teacher reactions to radicalcurriculum change. This change requires a shift inpedagogy from a “concept to exercises” approach to a“context to concept” approach. The paper analyses thechallenges facing teachers and students in schoolsthroughout Queensland and reports on their experiencesand expectations after one year of a two-year trial period.

Both de Berg and Rae present papers dealing with thehistoric development of chemical ideas. de Berg describeshow pedagogical history can be used to teach the keychemical concept of ions in solution. Pedagogical historyis the integration of history of science with informationrelating to the teaching and learning of the topic from theliterature. In this teaching/learning module, an introductioninto the dissolution process is followed by analysis ofRaoult’s experimental evidence and the development oftheories to explain these observations. Debate and conflict

among scientists are also presented. Students involved inthe first draft unanimously indicated an overall favourableimpression. In the second chemical history paper, Raedescribes the contribution of two scientists, JosefLoschmidt and William Sutherland, in the understandingof chemical bonding. Loschmidt proposed a new methodfor the representation of structures of organic molecules,including a cyclic structure for benzene (years beforeKekulé). In Sutherland’s study of liquid water, he proposedthat it consisted of an equilibrium mixture of dimer andtrimer and that the bonding involved positive and negativeelectrons.

Sotheeswaran provides a personal perspective onchemical education gained from 35 years of teaching. Hedescribes how the University of the South Pacific hasembraced the opportunities offered by the technology ageand adapted to the “student of today”.

From the APCELL series, Lim, describes an IR experimentto investigate the bonding in carbon monoxide.Determination of the bond order will allow thedetermination of the direction of the molecular dipole inCO. The dipole direction has important implications inunderstanding how CO acts as a poisonous gas or as aligand in metal complexes. As usual in the APCELL series,there is an educational analysis of the exercise, includingconsideration of theoretical and conceptual knowledge,scientific and practical skills, and generic skills.

Finally, Davidowitz reviews the book Prometheans in thelab: Chemistry and the making of the modern world,authored by Sharon Bertsch McGrayne (McGraw-Hill,2001) and Mitchell presents another interesting discussionin his column The Word on Chemistry.

4

Aust. J. Ed. Chem., 2004, 64,

Editorial - The (non) perception of chemistry as human activity

Is chemistry about substances, their reactions andstructures? Or is it about people making observations andinterpretations about substances, their reactions andstructures - and using and making them? Surely it is thelatter – as implied by definitions that begin “Chemistry isthe study of …………………” Who does this study?People, of course!

Let’s start from that basis. Then it is pertinent to askwhether the chemistry that is presented to our students,both secondary and tertiary, reflects the discipline as ahuman activity. Secondly, does the chemistry that wepresent reflect a current activity? Thirdly (in response toan implied negative reply to the previous questions) dothese issues have a bearing on enrolments in chemistrycourses?

There is a research study crying out to be conducted. Itconsists of surveys to see if there is a difference betweenstudents’ perceptions of chemistry and the biologicalsciences in terms of current human activities. I have ahypothesis that the answer is related to the bulging classesin biology that we have seen over the last twenty years. Itis plain that the biological sciences are selling themselvesthrough the underlying themes of what people are doingto try to cure cancers and AIDS, to understand geneticdisposition to certain diseases, and to develop methodsfor use in criminal forensics, for example, while chemistrythat is presented at lower levels is about what the likes ofDalton, Lavoisier and Schrodinger did (You surely notedthe past tense?)? Of course we in the field know thatchemistry is undergoing enormous unfolding ofknowledge, much of it related to the fields listed abovethat have been designated biological sciences. But are theseadvances, and the urgency of them, translated to ourteaching? Well let’s examine this issue.

It seems that every general chemistry undergraduate texthas a blurb early on about the nature of science.Presumably the authors are trying to make the messageabout chemistry as a human activity. Inspect some of themand look at not only what they say, but how they say it. Somuch is conveyed (or not conveyed) in the language style.

Here are key excerpts from a Foreword about the natureof science

• The scientific process begins with observations. Theseare normally made on controlled conditions in thelaboratory.

• Observations may be qualitative or quantitative.• Careful examination of scientific data sometimes reveals

similarities, regularities or patterns which can beconcisely summarised by a generalisation.

• Proposed rationalisations of observed phenomena arecalled theories or, if tentative, hypotheses.

• Theories are the keys to scientific progress. Each is anattempt to explain observed behaviour in terms of amodel.

• The real power of a theory is its ability to suggestproperties that have not yet been observed.

Such passive language! Where are the people!? We have

observations and rationalisations being made by nobodyit seems. And theories seem to be a force in their ownright, independently of persons! ‘The real power of a theoryis its ability to suggest ….’! Hands up all of you who haveheard a theory suggest anything. [Yes, I know that youknow what the sentence means, but your understanding isnot the issue here.]

Okay, let’s move beyond the foreword, and inspect thelanguage of discussion of ideas in the body of the text.For example, common to any number of texts: A puresubstance is a single substance with a fixed, characteristiccomposition and a unique set of properties. This, andhundreds of other definitions contain not even animplication that we talking of a human construct, or usinga ‘man-made’ language label. There is a suggestion thatthe concept of pure substance is somehow an absolutetruth, defined by a greater power. Might we use somethinglike this instead: If we obtain evidence that a certain stuffis composed of only one substance, we call it pure. Simplere-wording, but powerful differences in the message.

Or, as an introduction to the kinetic molecular theory:

We might ask why the volume of a gas sample is inverselyproportion to its pressure at a given temperature, or whyeach gas in a mixture exerts a partial pressureindependently of the other gases. Answers to thesequestions are provided by kinetic molecular theory.

Models in themselves do not give answers to anyquestions! But people use models to account for observedproperties.

Pedantic, you think? Well language is very powerful. Let’stake a step further. Imagine that tomorrow a radiation bombwiped out every human being on earth. Would there stillbe d orbitals? Would there still be hybridisation? Wouldthere still be standard reduction potentials? Would therestill be hard and soft acids? Would perhaps a newlyarriving, curious life form perhaps begin to rationalise theworld through different perspectives? Now look at yourtextbooks, and your lecture notes, and judge if theseconcepts are presented as ways of thinking by people, oras some absolutes that operate without human interaction.

Apart from the language and style of expression, whatabout the content? Although at lower levels of educationthere is a move towards learning in student-relatedcontexts, most high school and lower undergraduatecourses (those which the general masses have opportunitiesto participate) are built around the structure that expertchemists believe will provide a foundation for those whogo on to specialise: stoichiometry, oxidation and reduction,atomic structure, bonding, acids and bases, and so on.

From a historical perspective, where does a student cometo realise that after Dalton the keenest minds on earthargued for 60 or 70 years the validity of a particulate viewof matter? It is all disguised in one sentence: “All matterconsists of atoms.” Such a mis-representation! Perhaps itis supplemented by a ‘throw-away’ half page and a

to continue on page 9

5

Aust. J. Ed. Chem., 2004, 64,

Mind your step: bridging the research – practice gap1

Onno De Jong

Utrecht University, Department of Chemical Education, Utrecht, The Netherlands, O.deJong@phys.uu.nl

AbstractTeachers and researchers complain about a gap between chemistry (or broader: science) education research and theimplementation of research findings in the teaching practice. The present article deals with a small-scale empirical studyinto views on this gap, especially views on explanations for the gap and views on actions for bridging the gap. Theseviews are discussed by presenting several realistic measures, at a personal level and at a structural level, for establishingcloser links between research and teaching practice.

1 Presented at the Royal Australian Chemical Institute Chemical Education Conference in Hobart, Australia, February 2004

IntroductionResearch in chemistry education is a rather young branchon the tree of human knowledge, much younger thanresearch in modern chemistry that started about twocenturies ago (Lavoisier, Proust, Dalton). However, theorigin of chemistry education research can be locatedhalfway in the last century, so, about 150 years later. Therise of chemistry education research has strongly beeninfluenced by large-scale science curriculum reform in theUSA, initiated in the late 1950s, and the UK, initiated inthe early 1960s. Prominent chemistry curricula forsecondary schools were the North-American projects ofChemical Education Materials Study (CHEM Study) andthe Chemical Bond Approach (CBA), and the Britishproject of Nuffield Chemistry. The reform was mainlyguided by curriculum concerns and courses were designedto represent more adequately the ‘body of knowledge’ ofchemistry in terms of basic chemistry concepts and rules(instead of a large number of chemistry facts). For thatreason, the materials were developed by broad teams ofleading chemists and chemistry educators, advised byspecialists from other educational areas, such as thepsychology of learning. The new curricula were based onshared expertise and opinions regarding chemistryeducation, but chemistry education research was lacking,for the simple reason that this research did not exist at thattime. It came up through the curriculum reform becausethere was increasing interest in gathering evidence toestablish the effects of the new curricula on students’knowledge and performance.

The further development of chemistry education researchhas been stimulated by a new wave of curriculum reformsince the 1980s, for instance, the British Salters Chemistryproject, and the North-American project of Chemistry inthe Community (ChemCom). In the context of this reform,the design of chemistry courses was much more guidedby concerns for the learner and how what is learned maycontribute to effective citizenship. New themes enteredchemistry education research, for instance, chemistrystudents’ alternative conceptions and ways of reasoning,and the learning of chemistry concepts in contexts. Interestin the chemistry teacher also came up, especially his orher (initial) knowledge and beliefs of how to teachchemistry topics and issues.

The main goal of research in chemistry education, likeresearch in chemistry, is the building of knowledge. Thisknowledge can be generated regardless of whether theknowledge is of immediate usefulness. But it can alsogenerated because of the primary goal of the applicability.The present article deals with the ‘applied’ perspective byaddressing the relationship between chemistry educationresearch and teaching practice. This relationship isproblematic. For many years, researchers have pointed outthe poor effects of their efforts, for example, they complainthat the outcomes of research often do not find their waysinto the practice of teaching of chemistry and other naturalsciences (Shymansky & Kyle, 1992). On the other hand,practising science teachers consider personal experiences,common sense, and official documents as much moreimportant sources of their professional knowledge thanresults of research (Costa, Marques & Kempa, 2000) Inconclusion, a gap between chemistry (or more general:science) education research and teaching practice can beindicated. When addressing this issue for tertiary chemistryeducation, Coll and Taylor (2003) even used the termparallel universes for indicating the gap.

In the present article, a small-scale empirical study intoviews on explanations for the research-practice gap isreported. After a discussion of these views, a small-scalestudy of views on actions for bridging the gap is alsoreported. These views are discussed by presenting severalrealistic measures, at a personal level and at a structurallevel, for establishing closer links between research andteaching practice. In this article, a sharp distinctionbetween (research in) chemistry education and scienceeducation will not be made. Although the article mainlycovers secondary education level, most of the content canbe extrapolated towards tertiary level.

Views on explanations for the research-practice gapIn 2002, I conducted a small-scale study into views on theresearch-practice gap. The participants in this study werea group of 64 South African graduate students anduniversity staff members. All of them had experience withteaching science at secondary schools or universities, and/or teaching science education at teacher training collegesor university departments, and were familiar with scienceeducation research. From this broad experience, theyacknowledged the presence of the gap. In the first part of

6

Aust. J. Ed. Chem., 2004, 64,

the study, the participants were asked individually to writedown the most important explanations for the gap betweenscience education research and teaching practice.

Their answers were collected and analysed from aninterpretative phenomenological perspective (Smith,1995), without the use of an a priori established system ofcategories or codes. Instead, categories were developedon the basis of the data, through an iterative process duringwhich the data were constantly compared with each other.As a result, the answers were classified into three maincategories: (a) personal reasons, expressed from the teacherperspective, (b) personal reasons, expressed from theresearcher perspective, and (c) structural reasons,expressed from the common perspective. Each of thesecategories consisted of several sub categories. Allparticipants gave at least two classified different answers.An overview of the results is given in Table 1.

The results show that most of the statements regard‘teacher’ reasons, followed by ‘researcher’ reasons, andstructural reasons. Regarding the personal reasons, moststatements refer to a lack of knowledge or skills. Illustrativestatements from the teacher perspective are:

”Teachers do not know what research has been done”(category 1.2)

and

“Teachers are unable to implement ideas from research”(category 1.3).

Illustrative statements from the researcher perspective are:

“Researchers use language that is often complex – a simpleidea is dressed up to seem difficult” (category 2.1)

and

“Researchers do not have a clue what is going on in theclass, and what the problems are” (category 2.2).

Regarding the structural reasons, an illustrative statementis:

“Much science education research is disseminated viajournals and conferences that teachers do not read orattend” (category 3.1).

Although the present study is small-scaled, the resultscover a wide range of explanations that support findingsand views from elsewhere (cf. Costa et al. 2000; Hurd,1991; White, 1998). The reported personal reasons can beexplained from several factors behind them. Some of themare presented below.

First of all, teachers and researchers feel a need to survive.Teachers cannot find enough time to read research articlesbecause they are already too busy with their existingteaching. Even if they have time for reading, they needextra time for translate and integrate the content into theirteaching practice. Researchers also have to survive, whichmeans that they have to publish in high-ranked journalsread by only a few teachers. Of course, some of thempublish in journals for teachers, but that does not providerewards in terms of ‘research’ output.

Secondly, another explanatory factor behind the reportedones might be the differences in the way in whichresearchers and practitioners view each other. Teachersmight be inclined to think that research ought to providethem with solutions for their teaching difficulties.Researchers might be inclined to believe that teachers areable to transform the reported research outcomes intouseful ideas for teaching. Unfortunately, from both sides,the expectations are too high and the views are not veryrealistic.

The participants have also reported some structuralreasons. These can also be explained from factors behindthem. In my opinion, one of the most important structuralfactors is about the impact of leading theories of teachingand learning. This issue is concisely addressed in the nextsection.

_____________________________________________

Table 1. Explanations for the research-practice gap, reported by 64 respondents

Category Number of statements1. Personal reasons: the teacher perspective (71)1.1 Not enough time for reading research literature 191.2 Little knowledge of research outcomes 171.3 Unable to apply research implications 151.4 Weak belief in usefulness of research 111.5 Fear for consequences of proposed changes 9

2. Personal reasons: the researcher perspective (49)2.1 Unable to give clear recommendations 182.2 Little knowledge of teaching problems 132.3 Strong belief in their own ‘ivory tower’ 112.4 Preference for addressing general issues 7

3. Structural reasons: the common perspective (34)3.1 Little communication between researchers and teachers 233.2 Little collaboration between researchers and teachers 11_____________________________________________

Influences of theories of teaching and learningOver the past several decades, the (theoretical) frameworkof chemistry education research is strongly influenced bycognitive theories of teaching and learning (as thesuccessor of behaviouristic theories). In the beginning,these theories stimulated a rise of the research interest inchemistry courses, based, for example, on theories ofconditions of learning (Gagne, 1965), or theories of guideddiscovery learning (Bruner, 1975). Many studies on thesecourses were mainly focused on learning outcomes anddid not explore the interaction of instruction and learning.Many research data were obtained by using multiple-choice questions and other quantitative methods (cf.Nurrenberg & Robinson, 1994).

In my opinion, the value of the mentioned cognitivetheories for improving chemistry education is restricted.The conclusions of research that has been carried out inthe context of such theories tend to be too general to behelpful for designing courses in specific chemistry topics.For example, it is possible to develop several divergingcourses from one and the same cognitive theory. Thereverse way is also possible: one specific course can bebased on different cognitive theories. In other words, there

7

Aust. J. Ed. Chem., 2004, 64,

is no close relationship between these cognitive theoriesand specific education practices. Many studies havefocused on aspects of teaching and learning that areessentially ‘content-free’ and refer to general problems.However, most chemistry teachers are faced with content-related difficulties in teaching and learning. They want tounderstand the reasons why these specific problems arise.In sum, as long as chemistry education research generatesoutcomes in terms of general conclusions and implications,many teachers will be disappointed, and the gap betweenresearch and practice remains.

During the last decade, there has been increased interestin studies of the teaching and learning of specific chemistrytopics. This issue-specific research is strongly stimulatedby the current leading theory of knowledge acquisition:constructivism. According to this perspective (see e.g.Driver, 1989), learning is a dynamic and social process inwhich learners actively construct meaning from their actualexperiences in connection with their prior understandingsand the social setting. A major implication for chemistryteachers is the idea that they should have an insight intostudents’ (authentic) conceptions and ways of reasoningwith respect to chemistry topics. Many issue-specificstudies are focused on students’ difficulties inunderstanding specific chemistry concepts and rules. Adatabase of these studies is developed by Anderson andMcKenzie (2002), and can be found on the website:www.card.unp.ac.za. Many studies involve qualitativemethods for collecting data, for example, by recordinginterviews, think-aloud monologues (Bowen, 1994), orclassroom discussions (De Jong, 1995).In my opinion, issue-specific research is an important toolfor improving chemistry education. However, its valuedepends on the nature of the chosen research instruments.Records of interviews and think-aloud monologues canbe used before or after classroom instructions, but theyare not very fruitful for investigating the teaching andlearning of chemistry as it actually takes place in theclassroom. For that kind of research, it is particularly usefulto produce records of discussions between students andtheir teachers in educational situations. Moreover, theserecords can also be used to analyse specific chemistryteachers’ conceptions and actions. However, studies thatinclude data about classroom discussions and otherteaching and learning activities are rather scarce. In sum,chemistry education research that generates issue-specificconclusions and implications can contribute to bridge theresearch-practice gap. This kind of research is necessary,but it is obvious that this is not sufficient. Other actionsfor bridging the gap are also needed. Suggestions for theseactions are reported in the next section.

Views on actions for bridging the research-practice gapIn the second part of the empirical study mentioned before,I have asked the 64 participants individually to write downthe most important actions for bridging the research-practice gap. Their answers were collected and analysedin the same way as reported before. As a result of thisprocedure, the answers were classified into three maincategories: (a) ‘teacher’ actions, (b) ‘researcher’ actions,and (c) structural actions. Each of these categories

consisted of several sub categories. All participants gaveat least one classified answer. An overview of the resultsis given in Table 2.

The results show that most of the statements regardstructural actions, followed by ‘researcher’ actions and‘teacher’ actions. Regarding the personal actions,illustrative statements are:

“Teachers should develop their own abilities to be able torespond to what is written in the literature” (category 1.1)

and

“Researchers should write reports that are teacherfriendly, and publish in journals for teachers or informalmedia like papers and magazines (more accessible)”(category 2.1).

Regarding the structural actions, an illustrative statementis:

“Teachers and researchers come together in workshops,and exchange experiences” (category 3.1).

The recommended actions can be considered as thecounterparts of the reported explanations for the research-practice gap. Most of the statements were formulated in arather concise and general way. For that reason, I willpresent some elaborations of the proposals in the nextsections.

_____________________________________________

Table 2. Actions for bridging the research-practice gap, suggested by 64 respondents

Category Number of statements1. Personal actions: the teacher perspective (27)1.1 Teachers learn how to handle research literature 171.2 Teachers engage in research activities from time to time 10

2. Personal actions: the researcher perspective (29)2.1 Researchers learn how to publish in an accessible way 222.2 Researchers engage in teaching activities from time to time 7

3. Structural actions: the common perspective (39)3.1 More communication between researchers and teachers 283.2 More collaboration between researchers and teachers 11_____________________________________________

Linking research to practice: the personal levelFrom the teacher perspective, two actions were suggested.The first recommendation is about teachers’ learning howto handle research literature. This competence is not easyto acquire, but it can be developed through specificworkshops for teachers. In these meetings, they can learnto analyse and discuss the meaning and usefulness ofresearch articles. In my opinion, these articles should beselected carefully to prevent lack of interest,misunderstanding, and feelings of loss of time. Anadditional measure can be to invite researchers to join themeetings for explicating their publications. This is also away to enhance the communication between researchersand teachers (see action category 3.1).

The second suggested action is about the engagement ofteachers in research activities from time to time. This‘teacher-as-researcher’ role can vary from the teacher as

8

Aust. J. Ed. Chem., 2004, 64,

reflective practitioner till the teacher as formal educationalresearcher. Sweeney, Bula and Cornett (2001) provide anumber of specific actions that are summarized as follows.Teachers can keep lesson journals, write essays, and makeaudio- or video-records of classroom activities forreflecting on their teaching and students’ learning. Theycan also share their experiences by discussing theirdocuments and records in small group meetings with peers,and, finally, they can write short articles about theirresearch for chemistry teachers’ journals. In my opinion,collecting, analysing, and discussing the findings shouldbe carried out in a rather systematic way to go beyond‘anecdotal’ views, although sharing of teaching anecdotescan play an important role as an initiator of discussionsbetween teachers. It is obviously that all these actionsrequire the presence of inquiry skills at a certain level.These skills can be developed in teacher preparation andprofessional development courses that integrate theorywith teaching practice.

From the researcher perspective, two other actions weresuggested. The first proposal regards researchers’ learninghow to publish in an accessible way. Obviously, for manyresearchers, this competence is not very easy to acquire,but can be learnt in the context of specific writingworkshops for researchers. In these meetings, they canlearn to write summaries and implications that identifythe specific meaning of the findings in daily-life terms forteaching and learning. In my opinion, researchers shouldbe guided to find the right standards by inviting teachersto come to the meetings for giving feedback, anddiscussing the accessibility of the manuscripts. Beside,this can improve the communication between researchersand teachers.

The second recommended action is about the engagementof researchers in teaching activities from time to time. This‘researcher-as-teacher’ option does not appear to be veryrealistic when looking at the poor possibilities to replaceteachers for a certain period. An alternative can be tostimulate researchers to contribute to teaching aboutresearch at colleges for pre-service teacher training andprofessional development. In my opinion, this activeparticipation in teaching will be more fruitful when theresearchers are guided by professional teacher trainers whocan help them to improve their understanding of teachingfrom a practitioners’ point of view. Beside, in this way,the communication between researchers and teachers canalso be enhanced.

Linking research to practice: the structural levelMost of the suggested actions refer to improving thecommunication and collaboration between researchers andteachers. These issues are elaborated by several authorselsewhere (cf. Coll & Taylor, 2003, Gilbert, De Jong, Justi,Treagust & Van Driel, 2002; Hurd, 1991). In the presentsection, I will elaborate the collaboration between teachersand researchers by concisely presenting an action researchapproach that is called ‘developmental’ research (Lijnse,1995). In this approach, a small-scale curriculumdevelopment is linked with in-depth research on social,content and context specific teaching and learning

processes. The structure of the research involves repeatedcycles (a spiral) of activities. This cyclical method includesthe following stages. First, the evaluation of currenteducational situations, for instance, the identification ofstudents’ pre-knowledge and skills. In that stage, analysingexisting explorative studies can be useful. Second, inconjunction with reflection on science and scienceeducation, research questions are formulated. Third, newteaching strategies and materials are developed andimplemented. Fourth, teaching and learning processes areinvestigated during classroom and laboratory sessions.Important ways of collecting data are audio/video-recordsof educational activities. Finally, the results are used in anew cycle of research.

Important tools for teaching and investigating are‘didactical’ scenarios. By the way: the term ‘didactical’does not refer to the (dominant Anglo-Saxon) meaning oftechnical education tricks, but to the (dominant Dutch-German) broader meaning of teaching and learningprocesses. These scenarios can be developed throughcollaboration between researchers and teachers, and inconnection with the development of teaching and learningmaterials. Lijnse and Klaassen (2004) have described thefollowing functions of ‘didactical’ scenarios. First,describing the expectations of researchers and teachersabout the teaching and learning of a particular topic orissue. Second, guiding teachers in what they should do(and why) when teaching. Third, acting as a researchinstrument when analysing deviations from what wasexpected (testing hypotheses). Finally, contributing to theconstruction of well-founded structures for teachingparticular topics or issues.

In the area of chemical education, an example of a‘development’ research project, that includes the use of a‘didactical’ scenario, is presented by Stolk, Bulte, De Jongand Pilot (2003). Their study deals with a new issue in theDutch chemistry curriculum, viz. the teaching and learningof chemistry concepts in contexts. Preceding to theirproject, a teaching-learning module about ‘superabsorbents’ was developed by some teacher-designers. Byusing this module, teachers can help their students tounderstand, and select, water-absorbing materials fordiapers (nappies) and other applications. The chemistrybehind this context consisted of basic organic concepts,polymers, and the hydrophilic feature of substances inrelation to their molecular structure. The chemistryteachers who were involved in the project joined a coursethat consisted of college workshops connected withclassroom teaching. They discussed the module andformulated expectations for the lessons, recorded theirteaching, and, after teaching, they evaluated the moduleand their classroom activities in terms of deviations fromtheir expectations. The researchers in the project prepareda ‘didactical’ scenario (together with the teachers),observed the lessons, and interviewed the teachers beforeand after teaching. The findings show a fruitfulcollaboration between teachers and researchers, especiallyregarding the clarification of teachers’ conception andperformance in the classroom with respect to the newcurriculum content. Although the teachers acknowledged

9

Aust. J. Ed. Chem., 2004, 64,

the usefulness of the research activities, most of themindicated to have a lack a clear insight in the underlyinggoals of the course and the research. The findings wereused to revise the module, the ‘didactical’ scenario, andthe design of the teacher course for a next cycle of teachingand inquiry.

In conclusion, the present ‘developmental’ research is oneof the many faces of action research. This paradigm cancontribute to the bridging of the research-practice gap, butit is also obvious that a number of potholes should be filledand pitfalls avoided in order to make the bridge an effectiveway of bringing research and practice together.

ReferencesAnderson, T. R., & McKenzie, J. (2002). Using meta-analysis to developa database of students’ conceptual and reasoning difficulties (CARD).In Malcolm, C., & Lubisi, C. (Eds.). Proceedings of the 10th SAARMSTEConference (Section III, pp. 11-17). Durban: University of Natal Press.

Bowen, C. W. (1994). Think-aloud methods in chemistry education.Journal of Chemical Education, 71, 184-190.

Bruner, J. S. (1973). Towards a Theory of Instruction. Cambridge, Mass.:Harvard University Press.

Coll, R. K., & Taylor, N. (2003). Parallel universes: education researchand chemistry teaching. Australian Journal of Education in Chemistry,61, 20-25.

Costa, N, Marques, L., & Kempa, R. (2000). Science teachers’ awarenessof findings from education research. Research in Science and TechnologyEducation, 18, 37-44.

De Jong, O. (1995). Classroom protocol analysis: a fruitful method ofresearch in science education. In D. Psillos, D., (Ed.). European Researchin Science Education (pp. 146-156). Thessaloniki: ThessalonikiUniversity Press.

Driver, R. (1989). Changing conceptions. In Adey, P., (Ed.). AdolescentDevelopment and School Science (pp. 79-99). London: Falmer Press.

Gagne, R. M. (1965). The Conditions of Learning. New York: Holt,Rinehart & Winston.

Gilbert, J. K., De Jong, O., Justi, R., Treagust, D. F., & Van Driel, J.H.(2002). Research and development for the future of chemical education.In Gilbert, J. K., et al., (Eds.). Chemical Education: Towards Research-based Practice (pp. 391-408). Dordrecht/Boston: Kluwer AcademicPublishers.

Hurd P. D. (1991). Issues in linking research to science teaching. ScienceEducation, 75, 723-732.

Lijnse, p. (1995). ‘Developmental research’ as a way to an empirical-based ‘didactical’ structure’ of science. Science Education, 79, 189-199.

Lijnse, P., & Klaassen, K. (2004). Didactical structures as an outcome ofresearch on teaching-learning sequences? International Journal ofScience Education (in press).

Nurrenberg, S. C., & Robinson, W. R. (1994). Quantitative research inchemical education. Journal of Chemical Education, 71, 181-183.

Shymansky, J. A., & Kyle, W. C. (1992). Establishing a research agenda:critical issues if science curriculum reform. Journal of Research inScience Teaching, 29, 749-778.

Smith, J. A. (1995). Semi-structured interviewing and qualitative analysis.In Smith, J. A., Harre, R., & Van Langenhove, L. (Eds.). RethinkingMethods in Psychology (pp. 9-26). Thousands Oaks, CA: Sage Publishers.

Stolk, M J., Bulte, A. M. W., De Jong, O., & Pilot, A. (2003). Professionaldevelopment of chemistry teachers: contextualizing school chemistry.Paper presented at the 2003 ESERA Conference, 19-23 August 2003,Noordwijkerhout, The Netherlands.

Sweeney, A. E., Bula, O. A., & Cornett, J. W. (2001). The role of personalpractice theories in the professional development of a beginning highschool chemistry teacher. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 38,408-441.

White, R. T. (1998). Research, theories of learning, principles of teachingand classroom practice: examples and issues. Studies in ScienceEducation, 31, 55-70

Continuation from page 4:

Editorial - The (non) perception of chemistry as humanactivity

photograph or two. It is worth reading some of the papersof Mansoor Niaz1 from Venezuela who argues for moreauthentic exposure to the debates of times gone by in thedevelopment of our knowledge.

And also as throw-aways, rather than basic foundations,are the discussion of the cutting edges of chemistryadvancement, their intent, their potential usefulness, andtheir human involvement. Difficult? Biologists manageto present difficult stuff to students by highlighting thekey features. Why can’t we?

We have been, and are, bound by the use of passivelanguage, and a belief that we need to present chemistryaccording to an analysis of the logic of the discipline seenfrom the eyes of the expert chemist. These are not servingus well.

RBB

1 For example. Niaz, M. and Rodriguez, M. A. (2001) Dowe have to introduce history and philosophy of science oris it already ‘inside’ chemistry? Chemistry Education:Research and Practice in Europe, 2(2), 159–164. Availableon-line at http://www.uoi.gr/cerp/2001_May/contents.html

Conant, J.B. (1948). Harvard Case Histories in Experimental Science.Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

De Berg, K.C. (2003). The Development of the Theory of ElectrolyticDissociation-A Case Study of a Scientific Controversy and the ChangingNature of Chemistry. Science & Education, 12, 397-419.

Ebenezer, J.V. & Gaskell, P.J. (1995). Relational Conceptual Change inSolution Chemistry. Science Education, 79(1), 1-17.

Ebenezer, J.V. & Erickson, G.L. (1996). Chemistry students’ conceptionsof solubility: A Phenomenography. Science Education, 80(2), 181-201.

Heilbron, J.L. (2002). History in Science Education, with CautionaryTales about the agreement of Measurement and Theory. Science &Education, 11, 321-331.

Klopfer, L.E. & Cooley, W.W. (1963). The History of Science Cases forHigh Schools in the development of student understanding of scienceand scientists. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 1, 33-47.

Klopfer, L.E. (1964). History of Science Cases (HOSC). Chicago: ScienceResearch Association.

Klopfer, L.E. (1969). The teaching of science and the history of science.Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 6, 87-95.

Lin, H. (1998). The effectiveness of teaching chemistry through thehistory of science. Journal of Chemical Education, 75, 1326-1330.

Nakhleh, M.B. & Mitchell, R.C. (1993). Concept learning versus problemsolving: There is a difference. Journal of Chemical Education, 70, 190-192.

Pickering, S. (1897). Letters to the Editor. Nature, 55(1419), 223.

Schwartz, A.T. (1977). The History of Chemistry-Education forRevolution. Journal of Chemical Education, 54(8), 467-468.

Taber, K. (2002). Chemical misconceptions-prevention, diagnosis andcure. Volume 1: Theoretical Background. London: Royal Society ofChemistry.

Continuation from page 19: Kevin C. de Berg

The development and use of a pedagogical history fora key chemical idea: The case of ions in solution - References -

10

Aust. J. Ed. Chem., 2004, 64,

Teacher reactions to radical curriculum change: The journey to again become expert

Warren Beasley

School of Education, The University of Queensland, Brisbane Australia 4072, w.beasley@mailbox.uq.edu.au

AbstractThe challenge to change classroom practice has always been a tension for science teachers. For Queensland teachersthe most radical pedagogical change experienced in their lifetimes is now expected from a new generation of syllabusesfor the teaching of senior school physics and chemistry. As always the ideal curriculum (Queensland Syllabus AuthoritySyllabus, 2001) has expectations beyond the present competence and belief structures of the teachers and the availableresources. Essentially the new syllabus requires a 180-degree turn around in pedagogy to make it consistent with aContext to Concept teaching approach. This new model is in sharp contrast with 50 years of Concept to Exercisespedagogy. Associated with such a radical change is a very different balance of student assessment instruments requiredto meet different syllabus outcomes. The balance is now very much in favour of student investigations (Experimentaland Non-Experimental) evolving out of focus questions generated from face to face interactions within the school-generated contexts. This paper analyses the challenges facing chemistry teachers in Queensland and reports on theirexperiences and expectations after one year of a two-year trial period.

Introduction

The challenge to teach in context and for studentssubsequently to learn in context is an emerging challengefor science teachers (Lye et al, 2001; Whitelegg et al,1999). For Queensland teachers, this challenge isimmediate. The publication in July 2001 of the Trial-PilotSyllabuses in Chemistry and Physics by the QueenslandBoard of Senior Secondary School Studies represents anew dimension in syllabus renewal. This syllabus designstands in stark contrast to the design of the 1995 syllabuses(Beasley, 2001). The paradigm shift underlying thisinnovation in design requires radical changes in teacherand student actions for the taught, learned and assessedcurriculum. A 180-degree change in teacher and studentbehaviour is necessary for the syllabus to be implementedin the spirit to which it is intended.

Essentially the learning settings will require a change from

A CONCEPT TO EXERCISES APPROACH(1995 Syllabus)

to

A CONTEXT TO CONCEPT APPROACH

(2001 Draft Syllabus)

Associated with this radical change in pedagogy is a verydifferent balance of student assessment instruments thatare required to meet different syllabus outcomes. Thebalance is now very much in favour of studentinvestigations (Scientific and Non-Scientific) evolving outof focus questions generated from face-to-face interactionswith the school-generated contexts. This paper analysesthe challenges facing teachers and students in schoolsthroughout Queensland and reports on their experiencesand expectations after six months of a two-year trial period.

The meaning of “context”

The 2001 Draft Chemistry Syllabus uses ‘context’ to mean“a group of related situations, phenomena, technologicalapplications and social issues”.

Examples of possible contexts as portrayed in the Trial/

Pilot syllabus are for chemistry: Drugs, Medicine andPeople; The Air We Breathe; Fertilisers and Pesticides.

Contexts that are appearing in school work programs arefor chemistry: Choosing the Right Material, ForensicChemistry, The Health of Our River, The Manufacture andAnalysis of Beer, Wine & Spirits, The Sugar Cane Industry,Marine Chemistry, Metals and Mining, The Air we Breathe

The freedom allowed in the syllabus for teachers inindividual schools to choose contexts is spawning aplethora of examples. An initial survey of schools suggeststhat there is very little overlap in the choice of contexts.This freedom stands in stark contrast to earlier initiativesin other Australian states such as Victoria and New SouthWales where external examination requirements did notallow such an open choice (Hart, 1997). Time managementand school organisational arrangements constraintsindicate that schools would be struggling to implementcourses of study around more than six contexts over 2years.

Underlying assumptions about content ofcontemporary syllabuses

A syllabus in its broadest sense reflects a hypothesis aboutlearning - what is worth learning as well as how it shouldbe learned and assessed, and as such reflects the deep-seated values and beliefs of the designers. With thisparticular syllabus one can recognise the following changesin emphases (National Research Council, 1996).

Less emphasis on More emphasis onKnowing scientific facts Understanding scientificand information concepts and developing

abilities of inquiry

Studying subject matter of Learning subject matter in thedisciplines context of inquiry, technology,

science in personal and socialperspectives, and history andnature of science

Separating science knowledge Integrating all aspects of andscience content science content

Covering many science topics Studying a few fundamentalscience concepts

11

Aust. J. Ed. Chem., 2004, 64,

Implementing inquiry as a set Implementing inquiry asof processes instructional strategies,

abilities, and ideas to belearned.

Concept-based design (1995 Syllabus)

In this model, science is transmitted to students asdiscipline-based knowledge that has its worth (for students)in its contribution to a tertiary entrance score. Recentstudies into science teaching in Queensland report that“teacher talk” remains the dominant teaching strategy(Goodrum et al, 2001). Transmission of scientificknowledge devoid of a meaningful framework of studentexperience or prior knowledge is the predominant teacherbehaviour. Such a model of science teaching has resultedin the application of scientific theory as an optionalinfrequent experience for students. When a context isintroduced it is often done superficially through exercisesand usually occurs at the end of an instructional sequenceif time, interest or teacher knowledge permit.

This model of teaching in chemistry classrooms can beillustrated as follows:

Figure 1. A model of teacher transmission of content inscience classrooms

Context-based design (2001 Syllabus)The starting point for the design of units of work by schoolsis the selection of an appropriate context. This context andthe concept map surrounding it are expected to lead tomeaningful questions that will focus student investigationsand other learning experiences in the unit. This school-based decision is only constrained by teacher interest andexpertise, access to resources for investigations, theconceptual underpinning of the context, and the timerequired.

The syllabus requires that a number of key concepts bevisited on at least two occasions during the investigationsof the chosen contexts. The design encourages teachersand students to develop an understanding of these keyconcepts on a ‘need-to-know’ basis. The context asinitially revealed at the beginning of a unit remains centralto the classroom processes and specific conceptualdevelopment becomes important when student uncertaintyhinders further elucidation of meaningful knowledge andskills.

Figure 2. The relationship between the elements of a unitof work.

This approach requires teachers to engage students inauthentic real-world experiences of the context as thestarting point for student learning (Anthony et al, 1998).In doing so the model requires that initially the context beelaborated by building up a concept map about the context.At the centre of this map is the context surrounded by acircle of issues, features or events associated with thecontext. Further out, the associated science processes,models, topics, and science concepts are represented. Thisis all surrounded by a representation of the communityand school resources which could/need to be accessed inorder for students to investigate a choice of questionswhich arose from the issues raised earlier in the initialelaboration of the context.

The following flowchart (Figure 3) outlines the major stepsin the design of a unit of work commencing with thecontext being revealed, through to the finalisation oflearning as evidenced in student presentations and reports(Butler, & Beasley, 2002)

Comparison of the learning sequences diagrammed inFigures 1 & 3, soon reveals that a radical change inclassroom pedagogy is required. The challenges for bothteachers and students to act differently are substantial andwill require a period of sustained professional developmentopportunities. This perspective contrasts markedly withthe type of assistance that is made available to Trial/Pilotschools by the QSA. The Authority’s professionaldevelopment workshops are only concerned with thegeneration of an acceptable school work program(Accreditation) and with the awarding of appropriateLevels of Achievement (Certification) of studentperformance.

These elements in the chemistry syllabus are connectedin the manner represented in Figure 2 (Queensland StudiesAuthority, 2001).

A context CONTEXT

allows development of ...

key concepts KEY KEYconcepts concepts

which are arranged in ...

themes structure reactions

and are developedthrough the use of

key ideas and Key ideas from the syllabus

other ideas Other ideas selected by the school

12

Aust. J. Ed. Chem., 2004, 64,

The teaching /learning journey for teachers and studentsin chemistry is illustrated in Figure 4 below.

The context which has been chosen has been McChemistry(Niethe, 2002). In this Unit of Work, students will studythe nutritional value of McDonalds food as well as itschemical composition. The journey to teach/learn incontext commences at the centre of the figure where the“context” is explored and explained. This analysis leadsto a number of questions about the chemistry of the foodproducts marketed to prospective consumers. Thesequestions represent a number of inquiries which could bepursued through scientific investigation by groups ofchemistry students in senior high school classrooms.

The outer circle represents the knowledge inventory whichforms the concepts which “needed to be known” in orderto investigate the chosen research questions.

Figure 4. The teaching/learning pathway: entry point, elaborat-ing the context, framing the problems within the context, knowledge inventory

Context-based unit of work flowchart

1. Entry Point to Context: Gaining Student Committment

2. Elaborating the Context: Concept Map

3. Framing the Problems and Hypotheses within the Context

4. Knowledge Inventory (know/need to know)

5. Investigation: 6. Research Information: 7. Teachable Moments Experimental & Individuals or Groups Lessons, DemonstrationsNon-experiemental & Short Experimental

Investigations

8. Finalisation of the Learning:Students prepare Presentations and Reports

9. Exity from the Context: Reflection & Debriefing

Figure 3. Context-based unit of work flowchart

13

Aust. J. Ed. Chem., 2004, 64,

Learning to perform: novice to expert modelsThe professional development of trial teachers and studentsrequires the management of progression through diversestages of growth. Dreyfus and Benner (1984) provide aninsightful and useful research-based framework thatdescribes the attributes of professional behaviourassociated with five stages of professional growth from‘novice to expert’.

These stages are continuous and are labelled accordingly:

Stage 1: Novice - Rule governed behaviourStage 2: Advanced Beginner - Believing someone knows

the answerStage 3: Competent - Being strongly analyticStage 4: Proficient - Synthesising performance

Stage 5: Expert - Tacit knowledge

The trial teachers and students are ‘novices’ in theenactment of context-based syllabuses. Consequently therequired professional development of the teachers and thestudents comes down to managing the progression throughthese higher stages. This progression is not more of thesame at each stage. It is four essential transformations ofthe basis of their practice. It means that professionaldevelopment requires specific interventions at the differentstages. It means that an understanding of which stage oneis at can lead to what the self needs to grow strongly.

Not everyone will make the whole journey. Research hasshown that some teachers will be stationary for many years,perhaps for their whole career, in one of the five stages.This can be true for the novice stage; some teachers willbe expected to engage in rule-governed performance ofcontext-based teaching for the remainder of their careers.This is their belief about the essence of their performance.

Initial issues of concern by teachersFor sixty experienced teachers attending an introductoryworkshop on Context-Based Learning for Senior Science,issues of concern that were expressed in response to thequestion “What are your expectations for this workshop”are as follows:

Teachers’ ‘self’ • Personal Inspiration for senior science teachers

• Cure for personal scepticism

• Stimulation and energy for the trial teachers

• Justification for the change

• Showing what is wrong with the present, and why we must change

• Gaining of confidence that students will benefit from the change

• Understanding that the students have the social and cognitive maturity to cope with the new learning tasks

• Understanding how context-based study helps students to retain their knowledge

• Confirmation that this change is state wide and supported

• Clarity of vision for Context-based design

• Understanding teachers as authentic facilitators of student learning

• Principles of the new pedagogy required by this syllabus

• Push chemistry and physics back into the school curriculum limelight

• Clarity about how to handle diverse student projects, and outcomes in the classroom

• How to cope with the removal of so many concepts from the syllabus

• Reduction in concern that the new syllabus has an assessment bias towards girls

• Learning if contexts increase or decrease the amount of English and maths teaching occurring in the physics lessons

• Understand how this syllabus is continuous with the new syllabus in 8-9-10

• Support for the Trial Syllabus process

• Help with implementing the syllabus in the classroom

• Time to change and learn how to teach the new syllabus

• Series of interesting and relevant and viable contexts

• Solid support base for teachers in this change

• The universities’ prerequisites be reinstated to favour chemistry and physics

• The universities adapt to the new student characteristics that this syllabus will produce

• This syllabus might require universities to drop their standards

• There be more university-school contact

Table 1. Teacher Expectations of Professional Development Workshops

Justification forthe vision of thenew syllabus

Support for trialsyllabus process

Understanding thevision for the newSyllabus

Nexus betweenschools anduniversities

14

Aust. J. Ed. Chem., 2004, 64,

The first four categories of teacher expectations displayedin Table 1 have a ready explanation if they are approachedfrom the adult learning literature. Knowles (1987) hasshown that when adults are asked to change and learn newbehaviours and skills then they exhibit the followingcharacteristics (in italics). The categorisations of teacherexpectations adopted for this paper are compared to theKnowles positions.

• Adults have a need to know why they should learnsomething (Justification and Understanding for thevision of the new syllabus)

• Adults have a deep need to be self-directing. (Teachers’‘self’, Support for Trial Syllabus Process)

• Adults become ready to learn when they experience intheir life situation a need to know or be able to do inorder to perform more effectively and satisfyingly.(Teachers’ ‘self’, Justification for the vision of the newsyllabus)

• Adults enter into a learning experience with a task-centred or problem-centred or life-centred orientationto learning. (Understanding the vision for the newsyllabus)

• Adults are motivated to learn by both extrinsic andintrinsic motivators (Justification for the vision of thenew syllabus); (Support for trial syllabus process;Teachers’ self)

The fifth category of teacher concerns - “Nexus betweenschools and universities” - is revealing because it showsthat the senior science teachers at the workshop still havethe vision that they are preparing students for universityscience. This common teacher belief will become veryimportant in the implementation of the Trial 2001syllabuses because ‘science for all’ is the vision promotedby these documents. This belief, if unchanged, willundermine the enactment of the new vision.

This concern reflects a bygone era when universitiescontrolled tertiary entrance in terms of content andassessment of senior certificate courses. School-basedassessment and curriculum development has been a distinctfeature of high school education in Queensland since 1986.Since then the universities have accepted this process andconsequently admit students on the basis of moderatedteacher judgments. The question remains “Do teacherssee senior high school chemistry as preparation for tertiarystudy?” or put in another way “Will my students bedisadvantaged when they commence tertiary study if Iadopt this context-based design in my classroom teaching”The commonality of both these categorisations (teacherexpectations and the adult learning literature) raises anumber of serious concerns about the adoption andimplementation of innovation in school settings. Theseconcerns are related to the responsibilities and actions ofthe QSA and the school employers when deciding toimpose new syllabus designs on teachers. If the literatureis constantly demonstrating that the concerns of teachersduring times of change are predictable, then the questionis posed, “why do the responsible authorities adopt such atechnical rationalist approach to the implementation ofsuch a radical change in pedagogy, assessment and workprogram design?”

Beginning the plan-to-act

At the completion of an introductory 2-day workshop thesenior school teachers were invited to undertake a “freewrite” about their future professional needs in continuingto implement the new syllabus designs in their classrooms.A summary of their statements is provided below in Table2. Those needs which were most commonly stated areranked 1.

Table 2. Summary of Future Teacher Needs

Teachers’ future needs Rank order of teachers’ needs

Practical documents for all facets of the syllabus: contexts, activities, investigations, 1 textbooks, exemplars, criteria sheets for three new assessment tasks

More professional development workshops where there are science teachers and university 2 academics in education and science

More feedback from and contact with teachers actively involved in the trial syllabuses and 3 other teachers

In-depth planning sessions in the schools about the radical changes and the 4 developmental needs for teachers and students

Presence of QSA representatives and panel members to give direction and to clarify the 5 syllabus requirements

These data show that the teachers are at the novice stageof skill development. Their primary need is for practicaldocuments that give them ‘rule-governed’ behaviour thatwill start the process of their development. Secondly, theywish to engage in social-constructivist learning (Vygtosky,1978) with others with relevant knowledge: trial teachers,academics and other teachers. Thirdly, they foresee thatthis context-based syllabus is going to need a lot ofpersonal and professional development and that theirschools need to be alerted to this. And their schools needto plan for the change in teachers and students, and toallocate the resources, and be prepared for the difficultiesand struggles that will be part of the process for both theteachers and the students. Finally, the teachers see thatthey will need the authorities, the QSA who propose andmanage the syllabus, to be available to clarify the issuesthat will inevitably arise as the syllabus vision is workedthrough into classroom learning.

Teacher professional development needsPlanning for the future professional development needsof these teachers needs to ensure that the experience ofworkshop participation is given a chance to be translatedand tested in the classroom. Action learning strategiesprovide powerful mechanisms for this process to proceed(Weinstein, K., 1998; McGill, I. & Beaty, L., 1993;Kemmis, S. & McTaggart, R., 1988).

In designing professional development activities acommitment to social constructivist principles areappropriate. These designs emphasise the rich and

15

Aust. J. Ed. Chem., 2004, 64,

complex learning that adults can achieve by reflectingtogether on personal experiences in a shared project. Theseopportunities will allow the participants to reflect incommunity on their rich experiences and thus derive thedeepest and most indigenous learning possible.

Developing a sense of community among senior scienceteachers throughout the State will help overcome thelimitations and frustrations of walking alone on such aradical pedagogical pathway. Programs of professionaldevelopment that acknowledge a Zone of ProximalDevelopment (ZPD) (Renshaw et al, 1997) can be createdby learning designers so that assistance is provided bypresenters, experts and peers. Learning within the ZPDcan be divided into two stages:

Stage 1: The assistance to performance is designed bymore capable others. The learner is assumed to have limitedunderstanding. The expert takes the responsibility to offerstructures, directions, graded activities, modelling,scaffolding and feedback.

Stage 2: Handover Stage. During this stage there is a steadydecline of the expert responsibility for task performanceand a reciprocal increase in the teacher as learnerresponsibility. The transition is made from other-regulationto self-regulation. The assistance offered by the experts isto accurately tailor assistance to the teachers by beingresponsive to the teacher’s efforts and understanding ofthe task goals. This stage is complete when theresponsibility for tailoring assistance, tailoring the transferand performing the task itself has been effectively handedover to the teachers.

In ConclusionThe 2001 trial syllabus has the potential to improve andexpand the learning attained and retained by the studentsof Chemistry in Queensland schools. The vision of thenew syllabuses is focused on ‘science for all’ and ‘learningin contexts’. In this paper, data have been presented fromteachers in the very early stages of the implementation ofthese radical syllabuses. The data show little that issurprising but plenty that will need to be addressed if theimplementation is to be successful. The conclusions fromthe analysis are follows:

• Teachers are showing predicted responses to change:they want to know why they should change, they wantto understand the change and they want the requiredassistance to change. Importantly, they are also lookingfor a chance for personal renewal in implementing thischange.

• Teachers are novices in the pedagogy of the newsyllabus and they are looking for procedural knowledgeto get them started

• The compulsory professional development offered bythe syllabus authority (QSA) is only focused onaccreditation and certification. This focus is insufficientif the teachers are to learn the new classroom pedagogy.

• Teachers need professional development activities thatfocus on their beliefs, on their values and on theirassumptions about the vision for the senior subjects. Ifthe culture of the senior science subjects does notradically change, this new syllabus is doomed.

• As expected with the freedom offered to Queenslandteachers they are proliferating science contexts for theirstudents. This will have ramifications for any futuretextbooks and other resource developments

ReferencesAnthony, S., Mernitz, H., Spencer, B. & Gutwill, J. (1998) TheChemLinks and ModularChem Consortia: Using active and context-based learning to teach students how chemistry is actually done.Journal of Chemical Education, 75(3), 322-324.

Beasley, W.F., Butler, J.E. and Satterthwait, D. (1993). SeniorSciences Future Direction Project. (Final Report). Board of SeniorSecondary School Studies, 127pp, February.

Beasley, W.F. (2001) Learning in Context: Where to Now?,Queensland Science Teachers Journal, Spring e-journal,www.staq.qld.edu.au/ej5/beasley.pdf .

Butler, J & Beasley, W. (2002) Flowchart for a Unit of Workrepresentative of context-based learning in senior high schoolphysics and chemistry classrooms. Teacher Workshop Notes, Schoolof Education, The University of Queensland.

Benner, P. (1984) From Novice to Expert. Menlo Park, CA: Addison-Wesley.

Goodrum, D, Hackling, M. & Rennie, L. (2001) Research Report:The status and quality of teaching and learning of science inAustralian schools. Canberra; Department of Education, Trainingand Youth Affairs.

Hart, C. (1997) How the examination shapes the subject: the caseof VCE physics. Paper presented at the ASERA Conference,Adelaide, 4-7 July, 1997.

Kemmis, S. & McTaggart, R. (1988) The Action Research Planner.Deakin: Deakin University.

Knowles, M.S. (1987) Adult Learning. In R.L.Craig (ed.)Training and Development Handbook. (3rd ed.) McGraw-Hill: NewYork.

Lye, H., Fry, M. & Hart, C. (2001) What does it mean to teach physics‘in context’? Australian Science Teachers Journal, 48(1), 16-22.

McGill, I. & Beaty, L. (1993) Action Learning: A Practitioner’sGuide. London: Kogan Page.

National Research Council (1996). National Science EducationStandards, Washington DC: National Academy Press.

Niethe, C, (2003). McChemistry: Would you like fries with that? Aunit of work for the trial 2002 chemistry syllabus. School ofEducation Assignment, The University of Queensland.

Queensland Studies Authority (2001). Chemistry, Trial-PilotSyllabus, May.

Renshaw, P.D. and Brown, R. (1997) Learning Partnerships: TheRole of Teacher in a Community of Learners, in Logan, L. and Sacks,J. (Eds.) Meeting the Challenges of Primary Schools in the 1990s.

Vygotsky, L.S. (1978). Mind in Society, Cambridge MA: HarvardUniversity Press.

Weinstein, K. (1998) Action Learning: A Practical Guide. (SecondEdition) London: Gower Publications.

Whitelegg, E. & Parry, M. (1999) Real-life contexts for learningphysics: meanings, issues and practice. Physics Education, 34(2),68-72.

16

Aust. J. Ed. Chem., 2004, 64,

The development and use of a pedagogical history for a keychemical idea: The case of ions in solution1

Kevin C. de Berg

Department of Chemistry, Avondale College, PO Box 19, Cooranbong NSW. kdeberg@avondale.edu.au

AbstractA pedagogical history for a chemical idea combines a knowledge of the historical and philosophical background of thatidea with what is known about the teaching and learning of that idea and is presented in a format and language thatshould make sense to a student. The development and use of such a pedagogical history for ions in solution is discussedin this paper. The emphasis is at the upper secondary or lower tertiary level and attempts to illustrate how chemicalknowledge is constructed. An understanding of the nature of chemistry is a planned outcome of the exercise.

1 Presented at the Royal Australian Chemical Institute Chemical Education Conference in Hobart, Australia, February 2004.

IntroductionMuch has been written about the historical approach tothe teaching and learning of chemistry. Schwartz (1977)suggests at least eight important outcomes of an historicalemphasis in chemical education: chemistry is not amonolith rising toward omniscience but a subject oftenfull of ambiguity; validation of ideas occurs throughexperiment, logic, mathematics, and even aesthetics;history dispels the notion of a single universal scientificmethod but reveals a wide variety of often intenselypersonal approaches; human diversity of scientists; the roleof the imagination in the practice of science; value-ladenchoices made by practising chemists; social consequencesof chemistry; and a revelation of the nature of truth albeitsmall-t truth. These eight outcomes are components ofwhat Leopold Klopfer (1969) previously called scientificliteracy. While the goals of scientific literacy are admirableStephen Brush (1974) cautions us with respect to some ofthe possible outcomes. For example, young students mightfind the ambiguity and complexity of the origin of chemicalideas rather daunting and thus the historical approach couldin fact rebound on us. However, Brush concludes that ifthe chemical ideas are introduced sensitively the historicalapproach could have “a redeeming social significance”.That is, a more realistic picture of science demonstratedthrough its history may reduce the hostility to science bredthrough an image of the robot-like scientist lackingemotions and moral values. Henry Bent (1977) also speaksabout the difficult but desirable features of the historicalapproach to the teaching of chemistry. He compares thehistorical approach to the textbook approach and viewschemistry in history as “risky, insecure, inductivereasoning, from properties to principles. It uses factsaggressively to capture concepts”. On the other hand,chemistry in textbooks is “safe, dependable, deductivereasoning, from principles to properties. It uses factspassively to illustrate ideas”.

Chemistry curricula as revealed in textbooks have beencriticised for their emphasis on algorithmic problemsolving rather than conceptual problem solving (Nakhleh1993) and Lin (1998) has demonstrated that exposure tohistory of science cases in chemistry can enhanceconceptual problem solving ability. Klopfer (1963)demonstrated that gains in the understanding of science

and its processes followed a study of history of sciencecases by students in US high schools. In spite of thesepositive research results the use of history in the teachingof science and chemistry in particular has received onlylimited support. In 1989 the International History andPhilosophy of Science and Science Teaching Group(IHPSST) was formed with only limited representationfrom chemists. In fact, the role of history and philosophyof science in the discipline of physics has received moreattention than has its role in the discipline of chemistry.Bent (1977) argues that from a history of science point ofview “chemistry is more complicated than physics. Amatch dropped is physics. A match struck is chemistry.Free fall is easier to describe mathematically thancombustion”. The importance of showing our students howchemical ideas developed in modern society has,nonetheless, been highlighted on the international stagethrough such bodies as the IHPSST group and has nowbeen incorporated as a requirement in the NSW Board ofStudies chemistry syllabus. One of the reasons for the lackof application of history in chemistry teaching apart fromthose already mentioned has been the lack of supportingmaterials for teachers. This paper on a pedagogical historyof Ions in Solution is illustrative of an attempt to providesuch materials for chemical educators at the uppersecondary and tertiary level.

What is a pedagogical history?A pedagogical history differs from the history of science(HOS) cases published by Klopfer (1964) for secondaryschools and the Harvard Case histories in experimentalscience for college and university students (Conant, 1948)in that it includes information relating to the teaching andlearning of the particular concept from the researchliterature. The purpose of developing a pedagogical historyfor a chemical concept is to show students how a chemicalidea was developed from rudimentary information into asubstantive concept using important information aboutalternative conceptions that students have been shown topossess and combining this with important historical andphilosophical considerations gleaned from the literature.The history and philosophy is designed to breathe life intowhat Norman Robert Campbell (1953) called “the drybones of knowledge from which the breath has departed”.The knowledge of alternative conceptions is designed to

17

Aust. J. Ed. Chem., 2004, 64,

assist students in making a transition from what is oftencommon sense knowledge to scientific knowledge. I wouldnow like to illustrate how a pedagogical history for thetopic, Ions in Solution, was developed. The first stage wasa historical and philosophical study of the topic.

Ions in Solution-historical and philosophicalconsiderationsA historical and philosophical study of this topic in thecontext of the teaching and learning of chemistry waspublished recently (de Berg 2003). The major features ofthis study which are pertinent to the development of apedagogical history are:

1. The study used primary and secondary sources forrelevant information. These sources which date backto the late nineteenth century are invariably written ina style most unsuitable for student use. The techniquesused and the experimental data obtained however areimportant insofar as they are related to conceptdevelopment. I decided for the purpose of writing apedagogical history to include only the techniques anddata related to conductivity and freezing pointdepression. There were at least six other techniques Icould have used but one has to be careful of informationoverload in a pedagogical history and I tried to pickproperties which I could develop into a storyline thatwould make sense to students. For example, theproperty of freezing point depression enables me totalk about relaxing salt baths after a vigorous game ofbasketball or rugby, the spreading of salt on icy roadsin cold climates, and the use of antifreeze for radiators.I selected more than one technique because of thesuggested importance of experiment in decidingbetween competing theories. It is not intended that apedagogical history be a faithful historical record ofall relevant features related to the development of achemical concept. A pedagogical history has its focuson student learning rather than history of science butselectively uses data from the history of science andpedagogical studies to faithfully represent how achemical idea was developed. While a pedagogicalhistory will not be comprehensive in its treatment ofhistory it should reflect and respond to the bestscholarship in the field in its selectivity.

2. The topic is a good one for illustrating controversy inchemistry. The electrolytic dissociation theory for saltsin aqueous solution is arguably one of the mostcontroversial in the history of chemistry. Arrhenius,van’t Hoff, and Ostwald favoured the “spontaneousdissociation in water” theory while Armstrong,Fitzgerald, and Pickering favoured the “spontaneousassociation with water” theory. This is an ideal situationfor a pedagogical history because it shows howcompeting theories are treated in the development ofchemical ideas. It illustrates how experiment cannotalways decide between competing theories and alsoshows how anomalous data is treated in theoryformation. The colourful language used particularlyby Henry Armstrong really highlights the controversy

and shows how religious insights impacted onArmstrong’s attitudes. For example, in reacting to theXray study of sodium chloride by Professor WilliamBragg, Armstrong (1927, p478) said, “ (This) isrepugnant to common sense, absurd to the nth degree,not chemical cricket. Chemistry is neither chess norgeometry whatever Xray physics may be. Suchunjustified aspersion of the molecular character of ourmost necessary condiment must not be allowed anylonger to pass unchallenged. A little study of theApostle Paul may be recommended to Professor Braggas a necessary preliminary even to Xray work,—, thatscience is the pursuit of truth. It were time that chemiststook charge of chemistry once more and protectedneophytes against the worship of false gods: at leasttaught them to ask for something more than chess-board evidence”. It turns out that both theories madecontributions to our modern understanding of thedissolution of salts in aqueous solution in spite of theultimately favoured dissociation theory. Thedissociation theory is a good example of a theory thathas undergone refinements ‘at the edges’ over timewhile the ‘hard core’ propositions of the theory haveremained in place. The colourfulness of this debatelends itself to a dramatic presentation by students orstaff.

3. The role of ‘idealisation’ and ‘mathematisation’ in thedevelopment of chemical concepts feature in thedevelopment of the notion of electrolytic dissociation.Mathematics did not have an easy passage intochemistry as illustrated by this study. Pickering (1897,p223) reacted to the role of numerical relations inchemical theory by saying, “However convenient suchtheories (dissociation) may be as working hypothesestheir advocates should not have forgotten that theydepend solely on the numerical relations alluded to,and that something more than this is required beforesuch hypotheses can be raised to the level of acceptabletheories”. Armstrong (1928, p51) also questioned therole of numerical relations in chemistry and concludedthat, “we have to recover this (chemical feeling) orchemistry will be imperilled”.In the pedagogical history a reasonable amount of spaceis given to helping students observe that freezing pointdepression is proportional to the number of moles ofsolute and inversely proportional to the mass of solventby using close to ideal data. The real data from Raoult’sstudy is then presented to the students for their reaction.Reasons for departure from the ideal case are discussedin relation to anomalies in the data. Idealisation ofcourse marks the difference between medieval orAristotelian science and modern science and featuredin Galileo’s mathematisation of falling bodies. Itfeatures again in the development of the concept ofideal solutions and is an important lever to theemergence of mathematics in chemistry just as it wasin physics. A pedagogical history can demonstrate thatmathematical equations in science can possess a lifeof their own despite their common use in algorithmicproblem solving.

18

Aust. J. Ed. Chem., 2004, 64,

Ions in solution-teaching and learning considerationsThe literature (Ebenezer & Gaskell 1995; Ebenezer &Erickson 1996) on children’s understanding of the solutionprocess reveals that children use terms like melting,disintegrating, and dissociating to describe what happenswhen sugar or salt dissolves in water but nothing isconsidered different about the way sugar and salt dissolves.Some consider the sugar and salt particles to fit into theair spaces left in the water during dissolving. Research(Taber 2002, p101) has shown that some children thinkthat the solute ‘disappears’ when dissolved in water andthis has at least two interpretations. By ‘disappear’ somemean that it is actually not present any longer but othersmean it is present but not visible. However, some studentswho believed that the solute was present but not visiblethought that the weight of the solution was identical towhat it was before the solute was added. They thought theweight increased while there was undissolved solid presentbut decreased back to the original weight when dissolved.These are important ideas to address when developing thepedagogical history.

Structure of the Pedagogical History Draft 1The overall structure is that of a storyline with diagrams,data, and questions interspersed with the text. Space isallowed for students to write in their responses to questions.The first draft has been published for trial on the websitecontrolled by Professor Liberato Cadellini:wwwcsi.unian.it/educa/main.html, and consists of tensegments as follows.

1. The pedagogical history begins with a preamble whichtries to interface with well recognised events relatedto the dissolving of solutes in solvents such as salt bathsand the salting of roads in cold climates. The dissolvingprocess is modelled taking into account theunderstandings students reveal according to theresearch literature.

2. The next section focuses on the dissolving of sugarsin water and carefully establishes that the freezing pointdepression is proportional to the number of moles ofsugar dissolved in the water and inversely proportionalto the mass of water. At this stage only data fromRaoult’s original studies that approximates the idealvalues are used so that students can be assisted indeducing the mathematical relationships by inspection.Real non-idealised data are introduced later in thepedagogical history. The difference between amolecular lowering factor and a gram lowering factoris introduced to help students see how moles of soluteis important in the relationship. The whole idea in thissection is to illustrate what is meant by a scientificapproach to a problem in terms of isolating variablesand controlling them.

3. Having established a relatively constant molecularlowering factor for different sugars the molecularlowering factor for 1:1 salts is introduced. Five 1:1salts and their molecular lowering factors reported byRaoult are tabulated and the students are challengedto think of a possible explanation as to why themolecular lowering factors are different from the

sugars. They are led to consider the magnitude of thenumbers as a possible clue.

4. The Arrhenius dissociation model proposed in 1887 isintroduced and the students are asked to record whatpossible objections could be raised against it. Studentsare also introduced to the objections made byArmstrong, Fitzgerald, and Pickering.

5. Students are introduced to conductivity studies of saltsolutions and how the Arrhenius camp used thesestudies to verify the presence of ions in solution. TheArmstrong camp indicated that the ions had beencreated by the external electricity source and not bythe spontaneous dissociation of the salt. The studentsare asked to indicate whether the conductivity datacategorically prove that salts spontaneously dissociateinto ions in aqueous solution or whether the data simplysupports the notion.

6. Armstrong’s ‘association with water’ hypothesis isintroduced to explain the salt data. This hypothesisfocuses on the effect of the salt on water whereas theArrhenius hypothesis focuses on the effect of wateron the salt. Armstrong considers that the freezing pointdepression depends on the number of free hydrone(H

2O) molecules present in the solution. In the case of

1:1 salts two hydrone molecules for every salt moleculeare associated with the salt and are no longer freewhereas in the case of sugar molecules only onehydrone molecule per sugar molecule is associated.This explained, according to Armstrong, why themolecular lowering factor for 1:1 salts was nearlydouble that for sugars.

7. Students are asked to consider Raoult’s freezing pointdepression results for calcium chloride and bariumchloride and to write down how Arrhenius andArmstrong would have explained the results. They arealso asked to indicate how Arrhenius and Armstrongwould have explained the fact that a calcium chloridesolution conducts electricity.

8. The role of critical experiments which can help onedecide between two or more competing models isintroduced here. The advent of Xray diffraction isdiscussed and its role in indicating that the sodium andchlorine species in the solid common salt lattice wasNa+ and Cl- and not the neutral atoms is highlighted.Armstrong’s colourful published reaction to thissuggestion is presented to students for their reaction.Armstrong had strong opinions about what techniqueswere appropriate for chemists and which techniqueswere inappropriate. This incident highlights the factthat the presentation of counter evidence does notalways lead to theory change.

9. In Raoult’s original freezing point depression dataanomalous results are present and students are askedto identify and respond to these. Some reasons fordeparture from expected results are given and studentsasked to select which reasons may account for theanomalies.

10. In summary students are asked to respond to some

19

Aust. J. Ed. Chem., 2004, 64,

questions related to dealing with conflicting modelsin science, the role of a scientist’s personality in theoryacceptance or rejection, and the role of evidence andbelief in the construction of scientific models.

Student reactions to the first draftPreliminary trials of the first draft have been completedwith eight BSc students studying chemistry as a major,minor, or elective study. The students were asked tocomplete the pedagogical history in their own time. Somecompleted the task before formally studying colligativeproperties and others after having formally studiedcolligative properties of solutions. Without exceptionstudent overall impressions are favourable. One studentsaid, “I never knew this was such a controversial idea. Itis great to see how the idea of dissociation developed”.

Students found the section on the quantitative treatmentof the freezing point depression data particularly helpfulin terms of the nature of a scientific investigation. Onestudent said, “This has really helped me to understand therole of definitions and mathematics in chemistry”. Somestudents found the question, “What would the molecularlowering factor have been if Raoult had used 500 gramsof water instead of 100 grams?” puzzling while otherssuggested that the solution would be more dilute andtherefore that the molecular lowering factor would dropto one-fifth its value for 100 grams. This suggests that Iprobably need to establish through some examples thatthe depression is inversely proportional to the mass ofwater rather than assume it. The second draft will establishthis.

Some students mentioned that they were not able to answersome questions without reading further ahead in thedocument. For example, determining what can vary in afreezing point depression experiment was not obvious toall students and some indicated that they decided on ananswer only after reading the next few paragraphs in thedocument. This situation is consistent with the researchreviewed by Chinn and Brewer (1993,p20-21) whichshowed that children and adults are deficient in theirunderstanding of such methodological matters ascontrolled experimentation and the interpretation ofcovariation information. Perhaps this is why the studentsfound the section on controlled experimentation so helpful.Some students also found it difficult to suggest an objectionto Arrhenius’ dissociation model without reading furtherin the pedagogical history. In fact, students have implicitlyaccepted the presence of separate positive and negativespecies in solution for so long in their chemical educationthat they do not think to question why oppositely chargedspecies do not attract and come back together as a unitagain. This was a major objection raised by the Armstrongcamp. On reading of Armstrong’s objection the studentsalways express surprise that they didn’t think of theobjection themselves.

Students had no difficulty in interpreting the calcium andbarium chloride results using both the Arrhenius andArmstrong models and most were able to locate anomaliesin Raoult’s data and give an explanation for it. Somestudents were particularly articulate in the way they

answered the last three questions regarding conflictingmodels, the role of a scientist’s personality, and the rolesof evidence and belief in theory formation. In relation tothe question about the role of evidence and beliefs in theconstruction of scientific knowledge a second year studentsaid, “Beliefs are the views and opinions that scientistsbring to their work, while evidence is results or data thatsupport a particular belief. In this article there were twobeliefs concerning the dissolving of salt and sugar inwater….. Arrhenius’ view of dissociation into ions led himto conclude that the conduction of electricity in a saltsolution was evidence for dissociation while for Armstrongthis was not evidence and he came up with an alternativeexplanation. Even in the face of strong evidence providedby physics, Armstrong would not give up his belief. Beliefsstrongly colour how evidence is interpreted”. Studentsfound the pedagogical history easy to read and informativeabout the way chemical knowledge is developed. I do notthink this exercise would have been so helpful to thestudents if the storyline didn’t have appropriate promptswhich students could locate in the text. These prompts actas scaffolding (Taber 2002, p73) to support the learners’progress in knowledge acquisition.

Draft 2 of the pedagogical history will contain the changesalready suggested as well as other refinements such as inthe Xray section. It is important to note that powder Xraydiffraction techniques distinguish between K+ and K forexample because it is the electron structure that isresponsible for the diffraction and K+ and K have a differentnumber of electrons. Draft 2 will also contain adevelopment of the equation, ∆T

f = ik

fm, and a enhanced

discussion of idealisation and mathematisation inchemistry. This latter addition will suit the tertiary editionof the pedagogical history but not the secondary schooledition.

ConclusionEarly indications are that this is a project worth pursuinginto further drafts and trials. The use of a pedagogicalhistory in the teaching of chemistry should lead to asituation where assessment items in examinations willrequire not only typical problem solving activities but aknowledge of how chemical ideas came to be established.The primary purpose of a pedagogical history is not theteaching of history but epistemology as Heilbron (2002)has so adequately described. A greater understanding ofhow chemistry fits into the great scheme of the history ofideas in our civilisation should result.

ReferencesArmstrong, H.E. (1927). Poor Common Salt. Nature, 120, 478.

Armstrong, H.E. (1928). The Nature of Solutions. Nature, 121(3037),48-51.

Bent, H.A. (1977). Uses of History in Teaching Chemistry. Journal ofChemical Education, 54(8), 462-466.

Brush, S.G. (1974). Should the History of Science be rated X? Science,183, 1164-1172.

Campbell, N.R. (1953). What is Science? New York: Dover Publications.

Chinn, C.A. & Brewer, W.F. (1993). The Role of Anomalous Data inKnowledge Acquisition: A Theoretical Framework and Implications forScience Instruction. Review of Educational Research, 63(1), 1-49.

to continue on page 9

20

Aust. J. Ed. Chem., 2004, 64,

Chemical Bonding - Two Proposals That Never Caught On1

Ian D. Rae

History and Philosophy of Science, University of Melbourne

1 Presented at the Royal Australian Chemical Institute Chemical Education Conference in Hobart, Australia, February 2004.

IntroductionThere are two major traps that await the unwary historian.One is to view the past through eyes that have alreadytaken in much that passed between then and now. Theother is to get sucked into the idea that there were keyturning points at which new concepts came, apparently,out of the blue. This is to ignore the gradual build-up ofsuch ideas in an international community of scholars.

These traps are especially likely to befall the disciplinespecialist who seeks to become a historian without goingthrough the hard grind of an Arts degree and subsequentyears in graduate school. Exploring examples of bothkinds, however, can lead to a better understanding of whatwe do now, and why.

First, let me remind you that you have probably comeacross examples of the two traps in your own studies andperhaps in your teaching. In the first category we couldput the phlogiston theory, which held that something waslost (that’s the phlogiston) when a metal was burned inair. The theory was nicely self-consistent and it was onlythe advent of the gravimetric balance that finally broughtit undone. Mind you, it took a while for the phlogistiniststo abandon such a beautiful theory and they flirted withnegative mass before they did so.

An example from the second category would be thedevelopment of the periodic table of the elements.Following his announcement in the middle of thenineteenth century, we gave the credit to Dmitri IvanovichMendeleev and only gradually have we come to acceptthe significance of Dobereiner’s triads, dating from 1817,and organizational schemes proposed by other researcherssuch as John Newlands whose work was rejected by thejournal Chemical News on the grounds that it was toospeculative.

While these two examples have been explored in somedepth by historians and are often found in moderntextbooks, I want to speak today about two ways ofthinking about chemical bonding which emerged at eitherend of the second half of the nineteenth century and willprobably be unknown to you. Before turning to the ideas,however, I should like to introduce the players.

Josef LoschmidtThe first case is that of Josef Loschmidt (Fig. 1). He wasborn in 1821 near Karlsbad in Bohemia, now part of theCzech Republic but then part of the Hapsburg Empirewhich had twin capitals in Vienna and Budapest and amajor administrative centre in Prague. Loschmidt studiedat local schools, then at a grammar school in Prague where

he received a sound classical education. At the Universityof Vienna he studied physics and chemistry, but could notafford to pursue a research career. He failed to gain aposition as a teacher, and never made a success of severalattempts to prosper in the chemical industry. Eventuallyhe made it into the classroom, and spent several years as agrammar school teacher in Vienna, during which time hepublished two major works. Then, and probably becauseof this, he gained a junior appointment at the Universityin 1866, and this led to his appointment as Professor ofChemical Physics in 1871, a position he retained until 1891when ill health forced his retirement, and he died four yearslater at age 74.

Figure 1. Josef Loschmidt

Loschmidt researched in a number of what we would nowregard as separate fields of science. One of his two majorworks, submitted in 1865 and published the following year,concerned the size of air molecules. Assuming a sphericalshape, he calculated the molecular diameter as 1nanometre. While this is somewhat larger than we wouldaccept for such a quantity today, it is significant because

• it reveals that Loschmidt believed in molecules, whenmany people in the 1860s did not

• secondly, it is based on a mean-free-path treatment ofgaseous particles (recall that the kinetic theory of gaseswas developed in the period 1848 to 1895 with inputfrom such luminaries as Joule, Clausius, Maxwell,Thomson and Boltzmann, and thirdly

• it leads to a fairly accurate value for the number ofmolecules in a cubic centimetre of gas – the so-called

21

Aust. J. Ed. Chem., 2004, 64,

Loschmidt number – as 2.7x1019 which equates to thenumber in a mole as 6.048x1023. The modern value forAvogadro’s number should be ingrained on yourpsyche, but in case you are having a few days off, Iremind you that it is 6.022 x 1023, so you can see thatLoschmidt’s result was excellent.

Although Loschmidt did not have much contact withscientists outside Vienna, he did meet Boltzmann, whocompleted his PhD there in 1866, and he was always upwith the latest theories. For example, in his decliningyears, he invented an air-cleaning device to removebacteria from his room, a clear indication that he hadrejected the still-prevalent view that diseases were causedby bad air (so-called ‘miasma’) in favour of causation byparticulate living organisms.

William SutherlandMy second case draws of the work of Australian theoreticalphysicist and physical chemist, William Sutherland. Hewas born in Glasgow in 1859 and came to Australia in1864 with his family, who setted first in Sydney and thenpermanently from 1870 in Melbourne. He studied atWesley College and then at the University of Melbourne,taking his BA with first class honours in natural sciencein 1879. Awarded a scholarship for study overseas,Sutherland went to University College, London where hecompleted a BSc in 1881 with first class honours inexperimental physics. Good Melbourne boy that he was,he did not enjoy this northern hemisphere experience, buthe did have a job to return to. Nonetheless, he returned toMelbourne and embarked on a life of reading and research,supported by private coaching, university examining,frequent writing for newspapers, and occasional stints asa replacement for staff absent from the Department ofPhysics at the University of Melbourne. His applicationsfor chairs at Sydney, Adelaide and Melbourne wererejected, but he published extensively in leading physicsjournals, and far eclipsed the output of appointees whohad been favoured over him.

Sutherland’s work on the temperature dependence of theviscosity of gases led him to conjecture that theintermolecular 1/r2 force was merely the first of a powerseries, and that including the next term (1/r4 – nowadayswe would ascribe a higher power to it) gave a better fitbetween theory and experiment. He regarded this newforce as due to the existence in all molecules of ‘polarizedelectric doublets’ (to quote his biographer). We shall seehow this idea was transposed into the liquid domain andapplied to the super-molecular structure of water.

Sutherland died in 1911 of heart failure, at the early ageof 52. His brothers Alexander (a journalist andschoolmaster) and George (an inventor and journalist) diedat similar ages of what was obviously a genetic defect.Their sister, Jane, was a talented painter who belonged tothe Heidelberg group that included Roberts and McCubbinand she had her work hung in leading Australian galleries.Free of the curse on the male line, she died in 1928 at thecomparatively ripe old age of 74.

Loschmidt’s chemical formulaeIn 1861 Loschmidt published his Chemisches Studien inwhich he revealed a new symbolism for atoms and forinter-atomic bonding. Importantly, his formulae includeda cyclic structure for benzene, some four years before thefamous hexagon structure of Kekulé. At that time thestandard depiction of structure was the ‘type formula’exemplified here by Williamson’s (you might recall theWilliamson ether synthesis, but this is not it) reactionscheme for the preparation of diethyl ether from ethanoland sulfuric acid, via ethyl hydrogen sulfate (Fig. 2).

Figure 2. The standard depiction of structure exemplified here by the reaction scheme for the preparation of diethyl ether from ethanol and sulfuric acid.

Loschmidt’s formulae were much more explicit, as youcan see from those in Figure 3 for acetic acid and glycolicaldehyde. The large circle represents a carbon, the smallerones hydrogen, and their bonding relationships are shownby touching circles. The oxygen circle is doubly inscribed,and – this is an important point – its presence in a carbonylgroup, with a carbon-oxygen double bond, is emphasisedby two interconnection lines. Similarly, nitrogen isrepresented by a triply inscribed circle and a triple bondby three lines (Fig. 4). The formulae shown here are forsuccinamide and succinonitrile . Figure 5 shows thefamous benzene structure and the way it appeared in suchmolecules as phenol and anisole.

Figure 3. Loschmidt’s representation of acetic acid and glycolic aldehyde.

Figure 4. Loschmidt’s representation of succinamide and succinonitrile.

22

Aust. J. Ed. Chem., 2004, 64,

Figure 5. Loschmidt’s representation of (a) benzene and (b) phenol & anisole four years before the famous hexagon structure of Kekulé.

When I first came across Loschmidt’s structural formulaeI was struck by their similarity to the symbolic logic ofJohn Venn, which dates from 1880. Figure 6 shows thefamiliar example of the black cats. In fact, this symboliclogic goes back a hundred years before Venn, to the famousmathematician Leonhard Euler, who published it in 1768in his delightfully titled ‘Letters to a German Princess’.Symbolic logic has been adopted by chemists andphysicists in other contexts, too, because we can find itbeing used by G.N. Lewis in 1923 and by Coulson in hiswell-known book Valency (Fig. 7). Older members of theaudience would no doubt have been raised on this textand so the interactions of 1s orbitals will be familiar tothem.

Figure 6. John Venn’s symbolic logic applied to the example of the black cats.

Figure 7. Coulson’s use of Venn diagrams to depict orbital overlap.

Loschmidt’s formulations were never taken up, and withina few a few years a new regime had taken over and wefind a very modern look about the formulae being drawnby chemists in 1878 (Fig. 8).

Figure 8. Otto N. Witt, On Aromatic nitrosamines, Journalof the Chemical Society, Transactions, 1878, 202.

Sutherland’s theory of covalent bondingThe involvement of electrons in covalent bonding is firmlyassociated with the name of Gilbert N. Lewis, whose 1916paper on electron-pair bonding is one of the landmarks ofchemical theory. Like other ‘landmarks’, it had beenpreceded by some tracks in the sand, because chemistshad long suspected that electrons were involved in someway. In a Faraday lecture in 1881, von Helmholtz haddrawn on Faraday’s work on gram atomic weights andproposed that both positive and negative electrons wereinvolved, and he soon received support from WaltherNernst for this idea. Indeed, it was such a good idea thatit survived the discovery of the electron, by J.J. Thomsonin 1897, as the unit of negative charge. The real positronwas not to arrive until much later, of course, and then notin the realms of chemistry.

In the 1890s Sutherland turned from gases to liquids, hisinterest piqued by the properties of liquid water and theexperiments by W.C. Röntgen – yes, he of the X-rays – onthe temperature dependence of the compressibility of thisstrange liquid. Raoult had already hypothesised in 1882that, since freezing point depression data suggested amolecular weight of 57 for water, it actually existed as atrimer. The polymolecular nature of water was extensivelydiscussed in the 1890s, as an adjunct to the developingtheory of ions in solution, and there were a number ofsuggestions along these lines. Probably the last of thesewas that of Henry Edward Armstrong, who in 1906 madespecific proposals that the monomer, which he termedhydrone, existed only in steam, while liquid watercontained a dimer (hydronol), a cyclic trimer and possiblylonger chains, in all of which the oxygen atom had fourbonding partners (Fig.9).

Sutherland had entered the discussion with a paper in thePhilosophical Magazine in November 1900, in which heproposed that monomeric water existed only in steam,while the liquid was a mixture of the dimer (dihydrol) andtrimer (trihydrol) which were in dynamic equilibrium via

23

Aust. J. Ed. Chem., 2004, 64,

the monomer. This, like most of Sutherland’s papers, wasa theoretical contribution, but he drew on publishedexperimental results for latent heats of fusion andevaporation, specific heat, viscosity and dielectric capacity.By analogy with others’ work on metal oxides, he drewstructural diagrams showing apparent bonds betweenoxygen atoms. He went on to suggest that positive andnegative electrons were involved, with the neutral watermolecule having equal numbers of each, and the dimerresulting from electron exchanges that led one moleculeto have two negative electrons and the other two positiveelectrons, so that electrostatics held the dimer together.This scheme could not readily be extended to the trimer,and I think Sutherland fudged it a bit by resorting to‘equilibration’.

Figure 9. Armstrong’s depiction of “dihydrone” and “hydronol”.

He followed this paper with another in February 1902 inwhich he used musical notation sharp and flat to denotethe two kinds of electron (+ and -), and the musical neutralsign to denote a sharp-flat pair ‘in which the and aremuch closer together than in their initial position’ and ‘rushtogether to form a neutron’. Although Sutherland is talkingabout positively and negatively charged electron-likeentities, it is easy – with the benefit of hindsight – to makethe analogy with G.N. Lewis’ electrons that come in pairsthat we would now describe as having opposite spins.Lewis published his octet theory in 1916 but it only becamepopular after it was taken up by Langmuir in 1919. Thespin concept came later, in the 1920s, as a result of Pauli’scharacterisation of energy states supported byspectroscopic experimental evidence that electrons showtwo kinds of behaviour in magnetic fields.

The Faraday Society held a general discussion on ‘TheConstitution of Water’ in April 1910. Sutherlandcontributed a paper to it and this was published in theProceedings, from which we can see (Fig. 10) that he hadextended his scheme of positive and negative electrons soas to account for di-, tetra- and hexavalent oxygen, andalso depicted sodium chloride as Na Cl while the separatedions were Na and Cl . Sutherland was not present at thediscussion but his paper was circulated to participants andreferred to during the discussion. A fair account of itappeared in Nature a few weeks later, and an abbreviatedaccount in the Chemical News. As a matter of interest, apaper was also submitted to the meeting by Walther Nernst,who was not present, but a translation of it was read by DrNorman Wilsmore. Wilsmore grew up in the same suburbas me and took his Masters degree at the University ofMelbourne, later becoming the foundation professor ofchemistry at the University of Western Australia.

Figure 10. The formula for trihydrol showing negative electrons ( ) and positive electrons ( ).

Writing in 1959, Norman Feather said that Sutherland wasthe first to use the word ‘neutron’, as he developed hisideas about positive and negative electrons. Feather wenton:

Regarded in retrospect these views of Sutherland appearlittle more than fantasy; though there is a certain vagueintuition of later ideas, there is no empirical necessity abouthis fundamental concepts … But is was an age ofbewilderment in physics … and his fanciful picture ofmolecules and atoms, of electrons and neutrons was whollyinnocent, it would seem, of the thought that some day itmust meet the challenge of direct quantitative test, or passinto limbo. … No one else followed him into the intricaciesof this speculation, but during the first years of the centurySutherland was not a lone romantic among physicists: hismalady was partly of the age in which he lived.

The music stopped with Sutherland’s death within a yearof the Faraday Society meeting and that brought an end tohis speculation. Nonetheless, the mystery of water goeson, and from time to time we read of new experimentalresults, and new theories of the structure and compositionof liquid water.

Let’s leave the last word to the poet D. H. Lawrence:

Water is H2O, hydrogen two parts, oxygen one,

but there is also a third thing, that makes it waterand nobody knows what that is.

BibliographyR. Anschütz, editor, constitutions-Formeln der organischen Chemieingraphischer Darstellung by J. Loschmidt (Ostwalds Klassiker der ExactenWissenschafter No 190. Wilhelm Engelman: Leipzig, 1913). Reprintedby the Aldrich Chemical Company, Milwaukee, WI, Cat. No. Z-18577-9, 1989.R.W. Home, ‘Sutherland, William (1859-1911) theoretical physicist andphysical chemist’, Australian Dictionary of Biography 12 (1990), 141-142.

D.H. Lawrence, ‘The Third Thing’ in Pansies (1929).G.N. Lewis, Valence and the structure of atoms and molecules (1923)

Ian D. Rae, ‘Loschmidt and Venn: Symbolic Logic in Chemistry andMathematics’, in W. Fleischhacker and T. Schönfeld, editors, PioneeringIdeas for the Physical and Chemical Sciences. Josef Loschmidt’sContributions and Modern Developments in Structural OrganicChemistry, Atomistics and Statistical Mechanics (Plenum Press: NewYork and London, 1997), pp 119-127.

W. Sutherland, ‘The Constitution of Water’, Transactions of the FaradaySociety 6 (1910), 105-116.

J. Wotiz, The Kekulé Riddle (Springer: New York, 1992) on Kekulé’sdreams.

b#b#n

#b# b

#b

24

Aust. J. Ed. Chem., 2004, 64,

1 The complete documentation for this experiment is freely available on the APCELL web site [www.apcell.org]. It includes the educational template, a set of student notes, demonstrator notes and technical notes to allow ready implementation into a new laboratory.

An IR investigation of the CO dipole direction and other properties:An APCELL experiment1

Kieran F. Lim ( )

School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, Deakin University, Geelong, Victoria 3217, Australia, lim@deakin.edu.au

IntroductionSpectroscopy is a direct probe of molecular properties.The novelty of this experiment is the placement of a near-standard Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopyin an applied context of relevenace to physical chemistry,toxicology and organometallic chemistry.

For many years, there was disagreement about the directionof the carbon monoxide (CO) molecular dipole, which hadmajor implications for how CO acts as a poisonous gas(in its binding to haemoglobin), or as a ligand inorganometallic complexes.

Neither Lewis structure is very satisfactory. Structure␣ I isa zwitterion, which obeys the “octet rule”, but places thenegative charge on the more electropositive atom, and viceversa. Structure␣ II minimises the formal charge, but doesnot obey the “octet rule”. Structures␣ I and␣ II predictopposite directions for molecular dipole.

Structures␣ I and␣ II also differ in their bond order. In thislaboratory exercise, infrared (IR) spectroscopy is used todetermine the bond order of CO, and hence infer thedirection of the molecular dipole, as follows:

The vibrational transitions are used to estimate theharmonic frequency. The bond order can be determinedfrom the frequency-bond-order relationship.

The vibrational transitions are used to determine theanharmonicity and harmonic frequency. The bonddissociation energy can be determined from the harmonicfrequency and the anharmonicity. The bond order can bedetermined from the bond-strength-bond-order.

The rotational fine structure of the vibrational transitionsis used to determine the rotational constant, B

e, and hence

the molecular bond length,␣ re. The bond order can be

determined from the bond-length- bond-orderrelationship.This laboratory exercise enables three related butindependent measures of the bond order of CO and henceinfer the direction of the molecular dipole from the Lewisstructures␣ I and␣ II.

~

Section 1 - Summary of the ExperimentEducational Template

1.1 Experiment TitleAn IR investigation of the CO dipole direction and otherproperties.

1.2 Description of the ExperimentThe infrared absorption spectra of gaseous carbonmonoxide and atmospheric air (background containingcarbon dioxide and water vapour) are recorded. The carbonmonoxide spectrum is analysed in terms of molecularvibrations and rotations, various molecular properties andparameters, including the carbon-oxygen bond length, aredetermined from the spectrum.

The novel feature of this exercise is that the spectroscopicinformation are used to discuss the CO bond order,molecular dipole direction and other properties. An unusualfeature is that the first overtone is measured␣ (1,2), inaddition to the fundamental vibrational transition.

This laboratory exercise illustrates that spectroscopy is adirect probe of molecular properties, which have practicalapplications. (Spectroscopy is not just an academicexercise in quantum theory.) The observed gas-phasespectra provide direct evidence of quantisation and thebond order. This exercise is the only occasion whenstudents make a measurement of any molecular bondlength in the Deakin University undergraduate chemistryprogram. It is one of the few occasions where a bondbinding energy (the “bond strength”) is determined.Furthermore, this laboratory exercise gives students theopportunity to gain “hands-on” experience with a Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR) spectrometer, which is acommon analytical technique in industrial and forensiclaboratories.

1.3 Course Context and Students’ Required Knowledge and Skills

This laboratory exercise is part of the Spectroscopy unit,which is a compulsory unit (subject) at the start of thethird year. All students would have completed either asemester-long unit (subject) on spectroscopy, or asemester-long unit (subject) on analysis of biologicalmolecules, in second year.

In addition, students who are majoring in chemistry wouldhave completed a semester-long unit (subject) on “physical

25

Aust. J. Ed. Chem., 2004, 64,

chemistry”, including numerical analysis using MicrosoftExcel, in second year. Explicit detailed knowledge ofquantum mechanics is not required.

However, there is also a substantial number of non-chemistry-major students who have weaker numericalanalysis skills than the chemistry-major students. Someof these students have difficulty with the language ofphysical chemistry, which is a mixture of scientific Englishand mathemathics. This difficulty is reflected in the studentfeedback of Section 3 (Student Learning Experience),which shows that many students had difficulty with:

• comprehending that they had to fit an equation and• fitting quadratic curves to experimental data.

1.4 Time Required to CompletePrior to Lab 1.5 hours reading and pre-lab exerciseIn Laboratory 2 hours laboratory and 2 hours computer

laboratory for analysis of resultsAfter Laboratory 2-3 hours report writing

1.5 AcknowledgmentsInfrared rovibrational diatomic spectroscopy experimentsare a standard part of the physical chemistry curriculumin many universities. There are several examples of HCland CO spectroscopy experiments in textbooks andchemical education journals. For many years, DeakinUniversity had an HCl infrared experiment, investigatingthe fundamental vibrational transition. The original sourceis unconfirmed, but is suspected to be a standard literatureexperiment␣ (3).The course of several years, the author modified theexperiment by monitoring student learning and feedbackfrom students and technical staff␣ (4,5):• introducing the pre-lab simulation exercise using an

Excel spreadsheet␣ (6);• changing from HCl to CO gas (technical staff were

concerned that leakage of HCl — although unlikely— might damage the FTIR instrument);

1.6 Other CommentsThere are occupational health and safety issues associatedwith this exercise. Carbon monoxide is an odourless,colourless, flammable, toxic gas.

Suggestions of alternative (safe!) gases, which could beused for this exercise, would be extremely welcome!

The gas cell is the one piece of equipment that is most atrisk of breakage. Commercial 10␣ cm gas cells cost inexcess of AUD␣ $600. Specifications and detailed designsfor much cheaper “home-made” cells are given in theliterature (7,8).The assessment criteria for this laboratory exercise, havebeen published previously in the description of anotherexercise from Deakin University␣ (9,10).The teaching-and-learning assessment described in thispaper has been approved (EC 29-2002) by the DeakinUniversity Human Research Ethics Committee.

• introducing the analysis of the first overtone␣ (1,2);

• introducing the extension exercise on quantumcalculations; and

• introducing the contextual background of the COdipole and implications for ligand-metal binding.

When developing this exercise, the author was unawareof the paper by Mina-Camilde et al.␣ (1), which describesan almost identical exercise, but without the contextualbackground of the CO dipole and implications for ligand-metal binding. Professor Mark Spackman (UNE,Armidale) has a computer laboratory exercise on quantumcalculations on CO, which provided the idea of theextension exercise here. The author thanks AssociateProfessor Bryce Williamson (University of Canterbury,NZ) for discussions about his CO

2 experiment, which has

lead to the extension exercise in this laboratory exercise.The author thanks Ms Jeanne Lee ( )(LoyolaCollege, Watsonia) for encouraging and helpfuldiscussions.

Section 2 – Educational Analysis

Learning Outcomes

What will students learn?

Process

How will students learn it?

AssessmentHow will staff know students have

learnt it?How will students know they have

learnt it?

Theoretical and Conceptual Knowledge

Students should understand thateach rovibrational spectrum in thisexercise corresponds to a “singlepeak” in the more extended IRspectra, which are encountered inthe typical synthetic laboratory.

Students will be able to communicatethe understanding that a particularvibrational transition with rotationalfine structure looks like a singlevibrational “peak” when the scale ofthe spectrum is changed.

Students will measure and comparewide-range IR spectra (similar tothose in a typical syntheticlaboratory) with spectra focusing on aparticular vibrational transition(similar to those in physical chemistrytexts).

26

Aust. J. Ed. Chem., 2004, 64,

Students should appreciate thatmolecular energy levels arequantised.

Students will be able to communicatethe understanding that most of thespectrum has near-zero absorbanceexcept where the photon energymatches quantised changes inmolecular energy.

These fundamental concepts underpinthe entire exercise. Students willmeasure and compare IR spectra.

Students should understand thatabsorption of a photon results in atransition from a lower-energy levelto a higher-energy level. Thequantised changes in molecularenergy result in spectral peaks. Theincrease in molecular energycorresponds to the absorbedphoton’s energy.

Reasonable results are obtained onlywhen the assigned quantum numbersfor the spectral transitions obey the“selection rules”.

Students will analyse spectra usingrelationships derived using the“selection rules”.

Students should understand thatsymmetry constraints (“selectionrules”) determine which energy gapscan correspond to an “allowed”transition.

Students must understand thatsolution of the SchrödingerEquation predicts formulas for thevibrational and rotational energies ofsimple molecules. Hence, theseformulas, coupled with the selectionrules, will predict the photonenergies of the various allowedtransitions.

Students will be able to rationaliseand predict metal-ligand binding inother parts of the chemistry syllabususing spectral information, and beable to communicate thisunderstanding.

Students will use bond-orderrelationships to predict the bondorder on CO and the direction of themolecular dipole. Students will beasked to apply this knowledge tobonding and reactivity concepts inother parts of the chemistry syllabus.

Students should be able to relatespectroscopic information andconcepts to bonding and reactivityconcepts in other parts of thechemistry syllabus.

There must be sufficient data, detailsand discussion in the main body ofthe report, so that a student(classmate) who has done everythingas the student writer, except thisexercise (or this unit), canunderstand the report.

Students must decide what to includeor omit from a formal written report.They are given the demonstrator’sassessment and feedback pro␣ forma.They are encouraged to seek helpfrom the demonstrator.

Students should be able to exercisejudgement about what is (or is not)relevant in the context of theexercise, judgement about what is(or is not) significant in the contextof the exercise, and judgement aboutwhat is (or is not) important in thecontext of the exercise.

Students should be able to operate aFTIR spectrometer.

Students prepare samples and use thespectrophotometer to makemeasurements.

Students will record spectra of thesamples, which are consistent withliterature spectra.

Students should be able to collate,display and analyse data using aspreadsheet.

Students will use a spreadsheetpackage to collate, display, andanalyse observed data.

Students will obtain linear orquadratic plots, similar to those intextbooks and the scientific literature.

The experimentally determinedparameters will be in good agreementwith literature values.

Scientific and Practical Skills

Students should be able to transfergases from gas cylinders to samplecells.

27

Aust. J. Ed. Chem., 2004, 64,

Generic Skills

Students will complete the allocatedtasks with minimal conflict.

Students must divide tasks betweenthemselves at different stages of thelaboratory exercise.

Students should be able to work inteams, and to plan and manage theirtime effectively.

Students must be able to use andinterconvert units correctly.

Students should be aware of andconvert between energy (units ofkJ␣ mol-1), frequency (units of s-1) andwavenumber (units of cm-1)quantities.

The experimentally determinedparameters will be in good agreementwith literature values.

Students should (further) developcommunication and generic skills(11,12), including the ability to useappropriate computer programs(13).Note: The semester-longspectroscopy laboratory program atDeakin University is one of a seriesof laboratory programs specificallyintended to foster report-writingskills and use of computer packages(eg word processors andspreadsheets). Students are giventhe opportunity to submit draftreports for comment. This aspect ofthe curriculum is not an integralcomponent of the current exercise.

Students are given the opportunity tosubmit draft reports for comment.Students are encouraged to consulttheir demonstrator on the reportwriting style and use of appropriatecomputer programs.

Students will present a formal writtenreport, which satisfies the criteria setout on an assessment and feedbackpro␣ forma.

All of the above knowledge andskills.

By preparing a clear, well-structuredformal report, students will organisetheir knowledge and understandingand to consolidate learning (14).

Students demonstrate that theirknowledge, skills and understanding… satisfy the stated and impliedcriteria and they have met [orexceeded] all the other requirements…Note: This criterion is an extract fromthe Faculty guidelines on gradingand assessment. It is clearlycommunicated to students during thesemester and is the basis forassessment of all laboratory exercisesand assignments.

Section 3 – Student Learning Experience

Explainatory notes to Student Learning ExperienceIn 2003, almost 30 students completed this laboratory exercise and provided feedback on the Student Learning Experience.Most negative feedback commented on the mathematical analyses (this laboratory exercise requires students tocomprehend that they had to fit equations to the data and then to perform the fits). The following are anonymouscomments, reflecting the range of feedback.

3.1 Did this experiment help you to understand thetheory and concepts of the topic? If so, how, or ifnot, why not?

S1: Yes it assisted in my knowledge of CO and thereasoning behind its ability to act as two diff. things.

S2: Yes, relationships concerning bond order wereunderstood.

S3: Yes, much better understanding of equations andspectra detail.

S4: Yes, because some research is need to understandthe formulae

S5: Yes. The practical helped show how the calculations

con be related to obtaining ‘real’ information aboutmolecules

3.2 How is this experiment relevant to youin terms of your interests and goals?

S1: It wasn’t except for my goal of passingS2: CO; relevent in forensics due to its toxicity. Theory

quite interestingS3: Very, want to do well in subject.S4: Helps me understand rotational and vibrational

spectroscopyS5: This experiment helped clearify some calculations

which are required in SBC313 spectroscopy

28

Aust. J. Ed. Chem., 2004, 64,

3.3 Did you find this experiment interesting? If so,what aspects of this experiment did you find ofinteresting? If not, why not?

S1: I did find some of the information obtained from thespectra interesting

S2: Yes, CO has a triple bondS3: Yes, like dealing with molecules that have a

biological/biochemical effectS4: Yes, how molecules move when light is absorbedS5: Evaluation of data, ie. calculations were interesting

3.4 Can the experiment be completed comfortably inthe allocated time? Is there time to reflect on thetasks while performing them?

S1: Yes I think there isS2: Yes and no; It is difficult without help and is very

time consumingS3: Yes, not really time during lab work, but enough time

during spectra analysisS4: Deffinately notS5: Sufficient time for experiment

3.5 Does this experiment require teamwork and if so,in what way? Was this aspect of the experimentbeneficial?

S1: Yes it does particularly the research andunderstanding the equations

S2: It couldS3: Yes, in obtaining spectraS4: Yes, to talk through concepts with othersS5: Teamwork is not essential, however very helpful to

be able to correlate with teammembers andcolleagues

3.6 Did you have the opportunity to takeresponsibility for your own learning, and to beactive as learners?

S1: Yes I believe that helping each other also assistsindividual learning

S2: Yes but required additional helpS3: YesS4: YesS5: Yes, the calculations required further investigation

for clearity and better understanding

3.7 Does this experiment provide for the possibilityof a range of student abilities and interests?If so, how?

S1: I think some of the equations were quite difficultS2: NO, can get very confusing more guidelines neededS3: Yes, computer work, maths skills, etcS4: Note sureS5: Students’ use of computer software to aid in

calculations is potentially improved

3.8 Did the laboratory notes, demonstrators’ guidanceand any other resources help you in learning fromthis experiment? If so, how?

S1: The unit guide was helpfulS2: Yes & no. Yes calcs were enteredS3: Yes, for literature values and use of eqnsS4: Yes, to understand it

S5: Demonstrators guidance was essential in thisexperiment as he helped out with some difficultcalculations

3.9 Are there any other features of this experimentthat made it a particularly good or bad learningexperience for you?

S2: Bad → Why so many calculations. Did not knowthis was a maths subject

S3: Hard to know where to start in analysing spectraS4: good – using excel for graphing etc. bad – time to

understand and complete tasksS5: Calculations helped develop problem-solving skills

3.10 What improvements could be made to thisexperiment?

S1: The explanation of the equationsS4: Try to make it less time consumingS5: In additon to CO spectrum analysis, further analysis

of a diatomic molecule with a single Lewis structureand a single bond could be made

3.11 Other CommentsS4: have a nice day! :␣ )S5: No

References1. Mina-Camilde, N.; Manzanares, C.; Caballero, J. F., J. Chem.

Educ. 1996, 73, 804

2. Lim, K. F.; Collins, M. A., Aust. J. Educ. Chem. 2003, 61, 17.

3. Shoemaker, D. P.; Garland, C. W.; Nibler, J. W., Experiments inPhysical Chemistry; 6th Ed.; WCB/McGraw-Hill: Boston, 1996.

4. The Action Research Planner; 3rd revised Ed.; Kemmis, S.;McTaggart, R., eds.; Deakin University: Geelong (Vic), 1988.

5. Sweeney, A. E.; Bula, O. A.; Cornett, J. W., J. Res. Sci. Teach.2001, 38, 408.

6. Lim, K. F., J. Chem. Educ. 2005, 82, 145

7. Ohno, K.; Matsuura, H.; Tanaka, H., J. Chem. Educ. 1997, 74,961

8. Garizi, N.; Macias, A.; Furch, T.; Fan, R.; Wagenknecht, P. S.;Singmaster, K. A., J. Chem. Educ. 2001, 78, 1665

9. Lim, K. F., Australian Physical Chemistry Enhanced LaboratoryLearning (APCELL) Project, Reaction kinetics. Inhibition of theenzyme o-diphenol oxidase <http://www.apcell.org/, 2002(accessed 23 August 2002).

10. Lim, K. F., Aust. J. Educ. Chem. 2002, 59, 11.

11. AC␣ Nielsen␣ Research␣ Services, Employer Satisfaction withGraduate Skills: Research Report; Department of Education,Training and Youth Affairs (Australian CommonwealthGovernment): Canberra, 2000, <http://www.detya.gov.au/archive/highered/eippubs/eip98-8/execsum.htm> and < http://www.detya.gov.au/highered/eippubs/eip98-8/eip98-8.pdf>.

12. McInnis, C.; Hartley, R.; Anderson, A., What did you do withyour science degree? A national study of employment outcomesfor Science degree holders 1990-2000. A study commissioned bythe Australian Council of Deans of Science; Centre for the Studyof Higher Education, University of Melbourne: Melbourne, 2001,<http://www.acds.edu.au/ScienceR.doc>.

13. Australian␣ Bureau␣ of␣ Statistics, Business Use of InformationTechnology; Australian Government Publishing Service: Canberra,1997.

14. Moore, R., J. Coll. Sci. Teach. 1993, 22, 212.

29

Aust. J. Ed. Chem., 2004, 64,

Chemical education: The element of change, a personal perspective1

Subramaniam Sotheeswaran

Department of Chemistry, The University of the South Pacific, Suva, Fiji Islands, sotheeswaran@usp.ac.fj

1 Presented at the Royal Australian Chemical Institute Chemical Education Conference in Hobart, Australia, February 2004.

IntroductionI have been teaching Chemistry at the tertiary level fornearly 35 years – more or less half this teaching experiencehas been in an Asian country, and the other half has beenin the South Pacific1. The main concern in AsianUniversities and in the University of the South Pacific(USP), unlike that in most Australian Universities, is notabout decreasing student numbers but about teachingChemistry effectively to ever-increasing student numbers.

How are we coping with making Chemical educationattractive and meaningful to larger numbers? Our studentstoo sometimes distrust science and the problems perceivedto have been caused by science. What are we doing tocombat this? Our tactics and strategies may help Australianeducators.

Exploiting the skills possessed by the studentsBecause of changes in the school curriculum and a differentemphasis on what is important and what is not importantin the school curriculum, the student of today who opts todo Chemistry in the University arrives with many skillsthat an undergraduate of 35 years ago did not have. At thesame time, the student of today arrives minus some of theskills a student of the past clearly possessed. How havewe old teachers adapted? We try to make the most of theskills already possessed by the students.

For example almost all our undergraduates of today arecomputer literate at a basic level. On the other hand, theirskills in listening to a lecture and taking down notes atone and the same time are not very good. When takingdown notes, many students tend to take down everythingthat is being said, and thus miss comprehending the lecture.They, for some reason, have not learnt to comprehend,quickly abstract the important points and put these downin the briefest form. Do we spend time at the universitytrying to teach students a skill that was valued in the olddays? No, we exploit their new skills.

Students are asked not to take down all the notes but areencouraged to listen, comprehend and ask questions at theend of the lecture. Students are assured that the visual aids(projected by the overhead projector and displayed byPower Point) and the notes used by the lecturers will bemade available electronically. In addition, some of ourlecturers provide copies of the lectures in the library forovernight borrowing. Attempts are being made to requestfor class share allotments for some courses where lectures,tutorials, and other course materials could be posted onthe internet to give ready access of these materials to thestudents.

Accessing material electronically does not make the art

of note-taking dispensable. Students still have to go overthe material, understand it and extract important data.Neither does accessing material electronically makelistening and comprehending dispensable. At the lecture,the lecturer explains a great deal and students learn byasking for clarification. It is just that students are freer tolisten and understand when they are not under the pressureof simultaneously writing rapidly.

Are we coddling and spoon feeding the students? No, Idon’t think so. Old ways must give way to the new. Thetest question is: Is the new way effective? I assure you itis. The students appreciate it and benefit by it. And wordgets around that the Chemistry Department is vigorouslyadopting new ways to combat problems. At the end ofevery course students are given a Course Evaluation Formand asked for their comments. The feed backs we getregarding the strategies we have adopted are encouraging.

Our graduate students do not need to do an arduous searchof the literature for work that has already been done incertain areas of investigation. For instance those workingin the area of Natural Products Chemistry access theexcellent NAPRALERT database maintained at theUniversity of Chicago, Illinois. All the requiredinformation arrives within a couple of hours of a requesthaving been made. Information Technology (IT) has takenthe drudgery out of literature search, which is an essentialand vital part of research work but is time consuming anddull if done in the old way.

Students are helped by qualified staff to access databases.Rapid access to databases saves time and allows the studentto devote more time to reading and doing assignments andplanning and carrying out research projects.

Similarly, our graduate students who work in the area ofMarine Chemistry can access the Marine Lit databaseproduced by researchers at Canterbury University in NewZealand. All the required published information isavailable on a CD-ROM disc which can be readily installedin a couple of computers and the students are taught howto access the data. The Canterbury University researchersalso supply updates.

Teaching the ability to search non-electronic literature hasnot been neglected. In many research areas, students stillhave to rely on non-electronic literature.

Information technology aided instruction at USPThe University of the South Pacific (USP) is a dual-modeteaching institution – instruction is available both face toface (On Campus) and through Distance Education (alsocalled Extension Studies). In the South Pacific, the homesof Extension Students are spread over 33 million square

30

Aust. J. Ed. Chem., 2004, 64,

kilometers in the Pacific Ocean. Their homes are locatedin 12 widely separated Pacific Island nations. InformationTechnology has provided the means for bridging thesegaps.

The Extension Centres in the member countries providesupport services for the students. A satellite link (USPNET)provides the opportunity for satellite lectures and tutorialsand video and audio conferencing. These are conductedby staff at the main campus in Fiji. Assignments are sent,marked and returned by e-mail.

Extension students are provided with specially preparedcourse materials in Chemistry. Care is taken not to sacrificeclarity for the sake of brevity. At the end of a topic thereare tasks and questions. These are designed to make thestudent pause, and think about, review, make notes on andreinforce what has been read. Answers are provided sothat students can assess their own performance. Anyproblem can be discussed during tutorials. Students sit fortopic tests at the various centres so that they and theirteachers can keep track of their progress. Unfortunately,no study has been done to compare student performancein the two modes.

The extension chemistry courses are confined to the FirstYear and Pre-degree (Foundation) levels. Students whosucceed in completing these courses can opt to enroll inon campus courses at higher levels. Teaching extensioncourses at higher levels will have to wait until adequatesupport facilities are made available.

Course content in chemistryWhen I first started teaching (now that was about 35 yearsago), advanced theoretical chemistry formed a prominentpart of the undergraduate course.

We at USP have reduced the theoretical content of manychemistry courses and have added new courses toemphasize the applications of chemistry. For exampleinstrumental organic analysis is an important area of studyfor chemistry students. It enables a student to elucidatethe structure of an unknown organic compound andconfirm the structure of a known compound. It is importantfor the student to be able to interpret the spectral dataprovided by the analytical instruments. If technical helpis not available he/she will also have to learn to use asample of an organic compound, operate the instrumentand obtain the spectral data. It is not necessary for thestudent to know exactly how the instrument was built orevery minute detail about what chemical and physicaltheory its workings are based on.

Now theories are very important. They show us the forcesthat lie behind so much of what we see in the laboratory.We have not abandoned the teaching of theories altogether.For example structure reactivity correlations in the areaof physical organic chemistry are taught to postgraduatestudents doing research in a relevant field. However, themajority of students in a large class find too great anemphasis on the study of theories – well too theoreticaland irrelevant to their needs. It should be pointed out thatthe degree course at U.S.P. is a general degree course andan honours degree in chemistry is not offered. Both a

general degree course and an honours degree in chemistrywere and are offered in the university in Sri Lanka whereI taught.

The explosion of knowledge in Chemistry has given us avast field from which to select material and to design ourcourses. There are many exciting, interesting subjects inChemistry that bear a direct and obvious relationship toeveryday life. These engage the minds of almost allstudents.

At USP we have revamped some of our courses to suit theneeds and interests of the students. Popular topics includeMarine Chemistry, Environmental Chemistry2, NaturalProducts Chemistry and Medicinal Chemistry.

The Department of Chemistry has established a ChemistryAdvisory Group and representatives from the Stakeholders(for example The Fiji Sugar Corporation and DouglasPharmaceuticals) are members of this group. Industriesprovide materials for research and research projectssuggested by Industries are undertaken by somepostgraduate students.

Meaningful/relevant laboratory workMany chemistry students find laboratory work dull anduninspiring unless the experiment is related to everydaylife. Otherwise Chemistry becomes an abstraction.

From past experience I have found that experiments suchas extracting and identifying caffeine from tea leaves3,nicotine from tobacco, glutamic acid from human hair4,anthocyanins and flavonoids from flowers, amino acidsfrom potatoes, kavalactones from kava5, peanut oil fromlocal peanuts, estimating the alcohol content of local (thatis Fiji) beer6 and evaluating the vitamin C and limonenecontent7 of citrus fruits and peel respectively werestimulating.

One experiment that caused amusement as well as interestwas the following: Students were asked to drinkcommercially sold fruit juice which contained thepreservative sodium benzoate. They then, after a shortinterval, collected their urine and isolated hippuric acid.Hippuric acid is derived in the liver from a reactioninvolving the biochemical glycine, which is present in theliver, and sodium benzoate. The students were interestedto learn that the body does not assimilate the chemicaladditive in preserved fruit juice and that the liver helps toeliminate it from the body.

In the case of most of these experiments, a lead was givenand it was the 300 level students themselves who trackeddown the necessary information and theory and designedthe experiments.

Postgraduate students who undertake research projectsrelish work that is related to their environment and isrelevant to their country.

Students’ perception of scienceIn the early 20th Century, there was a widespread beliefthat science could solve all human problems and bringeternal health, wealth and happiness to one and all. Today,many people are disenchanted with science and blame

31

Aust. J. Ed. Chem., 2004, 64,

science for the vast majority of modern problems.

This is unfair. Science is no more (or less) than an effortto understand our universe and everything in it. Thepractical applications of scientific knowledge have broughtcomfort and prosperity to many. However, the overuse,misuse and abuse of scientific knowledge have createdmany problems. Jettisoning scientific knowledge in orderto get rid of some of its ill effects, foreseen and unforeseenill effects, is like throwing the baby out with the bath water.

Chemists, chemistry and chemicals have had some badpublicity in the recent past.

Agrochemicals, it has been pointed out, have polluted theair, earth and waterways and poisoned plant and animallife. But let us not forget that agrochemicals haveeliminated great evils – hunger, starvation, famine anddeath. These evils were enormous compared to theproblems that have been created by agrochemicals.

And there is a cure for the problems caused byagrochemicals. Sometimes the problems are due to thefact that the chemical itself is harmful. Then it should betested and banned. Often, the harm is caused by overuse.Then educating farmers through an awareness campaignis the answer. Only science and the will to use science forgood can solve the problems created by science.

Right now, the Chemistry Department at USP has apostgraduate research project in which we are trying toisolate biodegradable (natural) agrochemicals(nematocides to be exact) from marine sponges.

What is true about agrochemicals is true about medicines.Decades of research by chemists have produced wellstocked pharmacies and the treatment for many diseases.But the woes brought on by the unrestricted popping ofpainkillers, tranquilizers and sleeping tablets, not tomention vitamins which are freely available over-the-counter has caused harmful side-effects. The cure isregulation in the use of medicines, regulation in the use ofalternative medications and diet supplements and a creationof public awareness regarding the dangers of misusing agood thing.

The Chemistry Department at USP has isolated a naturalpesticide from the body walls of South Pacific seacucumbers8, 9.The pesticide is effective against the

molluscs, which are hosts to the parasite, which causesschistosomiasis, a tropical disease that affects thousandsof Africans.

What has been said about agrochemicals and medicines10

can also be said about cleaning agents, plastics, chemicalsused in refrigeration systems, chemicals used in vehicles,chemicals used in the cosmetics industry and many more.

We, teachers at the University of the South Pacific, aredoing all we can to create interest among students inScience in general and in chemistry in particular. We hopemistrust in Chemistry will turn to trust.

The Chemical Society of the South Pacific and theChemistry Department at USP have been popularizingChemistry through the Chemistry Outreach program inSecondary Schools and through various activities on theannually held USP “Open Day”.

Literature Cited1. Sotheeswaran, S., (1997), Innovations in Chemical Education in

the South Pacific, Proceedings of the Seventh Asian ChemicalCongress, May 16-20, Hiroshima, Japan, p. 614.

2. Sotheeswaran, S., (2001), Environmental Organic Chemistry,Monograph No: 11, Institute of Chemistry, Ceylon, ISBN 955-9244-12-4 pages 42.

3. CH 100 Laboratory Manual, (2003), The University of the SouthPacific, Suva, Fiji.

4. Adapted from the Experiment on the preparation of L-cystine fromKeratin (Human Hair), Vogel’s Textbook of Practical OrganicChemistry, by B.S.Furniss, A.J.Hannaford, P.W.G.Smith, andA.R.Tatchell, 1989, Bath Press (UK), p. 761-762.

5. Sarabjeet Singh, Variability of Kava Lactone Content of Yaqona inFiji, M.Sc thesis, 1999, p. 38-39, The University of the South Pacific,Suva, Fiji.

6. CH 301 Laboratory Manual, (2003), The University of the SouthPacific, Suva, Fiji.

7. Sotheeswaran, S., Limonene, An Environmental Chemical fromCitrus Peel – An Undergraduate Experiment in Isolation andSpectroscopic Analysis, Australian Chemistry Resource Book, Editedby C.L. Fogliani, (1997), vol. 16, p. 101-105.

8. Sotheeswaran, S., (1998), Molluscicides from South Pacific SeaCucumbers, Symposium Proceedings, 9th International Symposiumon Marine Natural Products, Townsville, Australia, 5-10 July, p.47.

9. Sotheeswaran, S., (1988), Screening for Saponins Using the BloodHemolysis Test, An Undergraduate Laboratory Experiment, Journalof Chemical Education, 65, (2), 161-162.

10. Sotheeswaran, S., (1992), Herbal Medicine – The ScientificEvidence. Journal of Chemical Education, 69. (6), 444-445.

The editors invite readers to make contributions to this Journal. As well as paperssubmitted for peer review, we welcome any of the following:

An invitation

• Short papers on chemistry topics orconcepts, from an educational perspective

• Reflective papers teaching and learningchemistry – general or specific

• Letters to the editor

• Announcements

• Forthcoming events

• Books to review

• News about people or places

32

Aust. J. Ed. Chem., 2004, 64,

Book ReviewPrometheans in the lab: Chemistry and the making of the modern world

Sharon Bertsch McGrayne

McGraw-Hill, New York 2001, ISBN 0-07-135007-1

Imagine a world where only rich people could afford soap,clothes were available only in drab colours and there wereno refrigerators, air conditioning units or nylon fabrics.In this very interesting book, Sharon Bertsch McGraynedescribes the personalities behind important discoveries,showing the human face behind the work in the laboratory.She presents a balanced account, highlighting both thepositive and negative aspects of the manufacture of ninemajor chemicals or chemical processes. Readers are ableto form a mental picture of the person who carried out thework as well as the social and political context in whichthe developments took place. This is welcome, since mostintroductory chemistry textbooks present only the process;the context is seldom mentioned.

The first chapter focuses on Nicolas Leblanc’s inventionof a process for making washing soda for the industrialmanufacture of cheap soap, textiles, glass and paper. Itmight come as a surprise to readers that soap was notwidely available to the general population until the 1850’s.Leblanc’s process ushered in the first of the large-scaleprocesses for manufacturing chemicals. Before washingsoda was available on a large scale, soap was manufacturedby small family-run concerns and was sold as a luxuryitem to the rich. The German chemist, Justus von Liebig,declared in 1856: “the quantity of soap consumed by anation is a measure of its civilization.”

The 1850’s also saw the introduction of the first syntheticdye. The schoolboy, William Perkin was trying tosynthesise a substitute for quinine. Instead, he discovereda beautiful purple dye known as mauve in the textileindustry. Until Perkin’s synthetic dye became available,coloured garments were available only to those who couldafford the cloth made with expensive dyes derived fromnatural sources. His discovery gave rise to the dye andpharmaceutical drug industries. In 1869, ten years afterthe synthetic mauve dye became commercially available,Perkin synthesized alizarin, an artificial red dye, whichwas sought after by the military. The large-scaleproduction of alizarin red represented the first time that aproduct, formerly derived from natural sources, wasmanufactured by an industrial process.

I suspect that not many people have heard of ThomasMidgley, yet he made a vital contribution to thedevelopment of the motor industry. He majored inmechanical engineering at Cornell University and was aself-taught chemist. After a year with the National CashRegister Company, he went to work for Charles Kettering,the owner of the Dayton Engineering Laboratories wherehe carried out studies on anti-knocking agents. Using aversion of the periodic table published in 1913, Midgleymoved from a hit-or-miss approach to research to a projectbased on fundamental scientific principles. In 1921 the

first sample of tetraethyl lead was synthesized in Midgley’slaboratory and leaded petrol went on sale to the public in1923. In spite of concerns about exposure to lead, thepublic was enthusiastic about the product and enjoyed theirenhanced mobility. By 1960, leaded petrol accounted for90 percent of fuel sales for motors cars in the United States.Not only did Midgley’s work change the face of the motorindustry, he was responsible for the development of non-toxic substances to be used as a gas for the refrigerationindustry. In 1929 only about 15 percent of Americanfamilies owned refrigerators although the principles behindrefrigeration had been known for about 100 years. Earlycoolant gases included chemicals such as ammonia, methylchloride and sulfur dioxide which are toxic. Frigidairewere interested in cooling large public spaces such asmovie theatres and railway carriages and approachedMidgley to carry out research into finding a suitablealternative to the gases available at the time. Within ashort time, Midgley and his co-workers had identified anew class of compounds, the chlorofluorohydrocarbonsbased on knowledge of the periodic table as well as dataon boiling points, volatility, stability and lack of toxicity.When Midgley unveiled dichlorodifluromethane at theannual meeting of the America Chemical Society in 1930,there was no notion that many years later, it would be foundto be responsible for the depletion of the ozone layer.Refrigeration had an enormous impact on society and manylives were saved since vaccines and food could bepreserved more easily. It changed shopping patterns asfresh food no longer had to be consumed shortly after itwas produced.

Wallace Hume Carothers was the mastermind behind oneof the great technological developments of the twentiethcentury, namely the conversion of simple molecules intopolymers. He graduated from high school in 1914 andspent a decade struggling to qualify as a chemist. Afterworking at Harvard University for a few years, Carothersaccepted a position with Du Pont where he carried out theresearch that would transform the organic polymerindustry. He synthesized the first polyesters showing thatpolymers were macromolecules consisting of long chainsof monomers held together by covalent bonds. In 1930,Carothers and his team produced Neoprene and polyesterand five years later the team synthesized nylon. Theproperties of the new synthetic fibre were superior to thoseof natural fibres such as silk in that nylon was stronger,more elastic and more resistant to rot, mildew and moths.Nylon, the first completely synthetic fibre, was marketedin 1940. While Midgley was outgoing and gregarious,Carothers suffered from various illnesses including bipolardisorder and committed suicide in 1937 a few days afterhis forty-first birthday.

33

Aust. J. Ed. Chem., 2004, 64,

The developers of several other chemicals are discussedin this book including Muller and DDT, Hackland and thepurification of water, Haber and the production ofammonia and Patterson’s campaign to introduce lead-freepetrol. McGrayne has concentrated on painting a pictureof the personalities behind the discoveries rather thanwriting a conventional chemistry textbook. It is a pitythat the one chemical structure included in the book,namely that of DDT, is incorrect in that the aromatic ringsare drawn as if they were cyclohexane derivatives.

Chemists and teachers of chemistry at both secondary andtertiary level will find this book interesting as it providesmuch in the way of background material which could beused to foster an interest in chemistry. I persuaded myniece, a psychology and commerce undergraduate, to reada chapter from the book. She chose chapter 2, whichdescribes the work of Perkin and the development of thedye industry. When questioned, she said that the book

had been “quite informative and provided comprehensivehistorical background. It justified why the discovery wasimportant and its impact on society.” Although she foundthat there were inconsistencies; the material varied frombeing technical to being suitable for a layperson, shenevertheless felt that it was an interesting read.

I would recommend this book to any chemist or chemistryteacher who is curious to learn about the man (thePrometheans are all men) behind the invention or discoveryof some of the most important chemicals produced in thelast 200 years. There is an extensive bibliography, 38pages, for those who want to do further reading.

Bette DavidowitzDepartment of Chemistry,University of Cape Town,South Africabette@science.uct.ac.za

34

Aust. J. Ed. Chem., 2004, 64,

The word on chemistryAllan MitchellCRC Viticulture, University of New England, Armidale NSW 2351, amitchel@metz.une.edu.au

Who was it that said that one had to be mad to studychemistry? Such a broad and derogatory statement mustsurely have come from some nutty person who has neithershared in the subtleties of stoichiometry, been captivatedby the charms of catalysis, nor experienced the ecstasiesof electronegativity.

I had, at one point, decided (well, suspected) thatstoichiometry was derived from the sense of havingstoicism, that is, being a Stoic, as the idea of beingunchangeable in appearance and outlook seemed to fit withthat of the neat, unalterable, elemental relationships ofchemical compounds and reactions. Here my logic andthe actual facts of the matter diverged leaving me with thenewly-won knowledge that Stoics were some hard-nosedphilosophers following Zeno, a fellow who sat on a porchunder a portico called a stoa at the Megali Stoa or GrandLodge in Athens and told us with a straight face to acceptwhatever life dished out as being preordained andunavoidable.

Trying to separate the stoichiometry of elements from theelements of stoichiometry proved difficult. Beingstoichiometric emerged as having the condition of beingmade up of elemental steps while a Latin elementum ofunknown origin was equivalent to a Greek elementary stepcalled a stoichon. Allowing myself great latitude, Iconjectured that Zeno would be in his element havingclimbed steps to get to the porch, then I left the subjectaltogether.

Investigations into catalysis were somewhat morerewarding in that cata, a quite common prefix, came froma Greek kata, for down or wholly depending on the context,and gave direction to throwers, casters and siting bishopsin catapults, catastrophes and cathedrals. Coupled withlyein, to loosen or dissolve, katalyein eventually gave uscatalysis which was originally to completely dissolve butwhich now describes a process influenced by an agentacting to alter the status quo but remaining unaffected bythe reaction and fate of those involved (like a formerassociate of mine). This suffix also found its way toelectrolysis and autolysis (also to paralysis for disabledat the side) and to lysis, lost and loose. I did conjecturethat lye soap might connect by loosening dirt but this issaid to come from lavare, to wash, my conjecture endingup in a lavatorium.

The negative bit of electronegativity comes straight fromthe Latin negare, to deny or say no, while the electro bitgoes back over 3000 years to Greece. The Greek wordfor amber was (and is ?) electra, which was also the nameof the daughter of Agamemnon and Chrysothemis. Like

Oedipus, Electra, meaning brilliant, had a mothercomplex, only her’s was one of hatred as Mum and herboyfriend had bumped off Dad causing Electra to becomeelectrified into a desire for revenge. I assume that Electrawas attractive – so was electra, i.e. amber, due to itstendency to build up static charge, subsequently givingoff brilliant sparks when discharging. Anyway, a brightspark called Lorentz theorised that zillions of tiny thingscaused this charge and in 1892 duly named them electronswhich duly converted to and explained electricity oncethey got mobile. Whether amber or electra, it was valuable,as was electrum, an alloy of gold and silver and otherprecious metals.

On being nutty, I’m not sure how such a term achieved itscurrent derogatory connotation (probably something to dowith the head being called a nut) but it is certainly thecondition of being a nut, earlier a nute or a note or a hnot,all stemming from the Latin term for a nut or kernal whichwas nux or nucis. If a Roman spoke of a nut, then nucaliswould have been uttered, whereas a little nut gave rise toa nucleus. One can have a nucleus in a cell and one canhave a nucleus in an atom and one can have the nucleus ofan idea – obviously something small but with greatpotential - and biologists speak of even smaller nuts callednucleoli. By the way, our atom is from atomos from a-and tomos for not cut, the cutting tomos bit ending up inmicrotomes and tomography but, unsurprisingly, not inhacking Algonquian tomahaks.

Nutty things can be useful, for example a concoction ofpistachio and almonds nuts (noga) blended with sugarsweetened the palettes of the Provencal French as nogatand nougat while, if it was felt necessary, one could takea nut-derived emetic called Nux Vomica full of nastyalkaloids from the Strychnos nux vomica tree, hence onewould administer strychnine to cure a severe case ofpoisoning.

Sneaking back to electra, I had a late thought that thismight connect with elections. Investigations did yield anElectrix, the wife of the German Elector, but the wholething went back to eligere for e- and ligere, for from andto choose. This looked a bit like ligare which was to bind,perhaps by means of ligatures, certainly by ligands, but Icould not connect them together nor could I link lignum,or wood, engendering lignin. There was, however, a notesuggesting a lexiconic leaning toward all of the termspossibly having the basic meaning of being bendable butI am unsure if our elected officials would appreciate beingcalled bent, though they might prefer being described asboth eligible and elegant!

35

Aust. J. Ed. Chem., 2004, 64,

EXCELLENT RESOURCES FOR SENIOR SECONDARYSCIENCE COURSES AVAILABLE WITHIN AUSTRALIA

The Chemical Education Group of the RACI (SA Branch) has exclusive distributionarrangements within Australia for a number of high quality science magazines,predominantly in Chemistry. The magazines are available on a subscription basis.A few selected books and CD ROMs are also available for purchase.

All of the materials are suitable for teacher and student use.The resources available are:

MagazinesChemMatters Published 4 times per year by the American Chemical Society

Chemistry Review Published 4 times per year for the Chemistry Dept, University of York (UK)

CHEM 13 NEWS Published 9 times per year by the Chemistry Department, University of Waterloo (Canada)

Physics Review Published 4 times per year for the Physics, Electronics and Education Departments,University of York (UK)

Biological Sciences Published 4 times per year for the School of Biological Sciences,Review University of Manchester (UK)

CDROMsChemMatters CD ROM (version 2. 0) contains all issues of the magazine from Feb ’83 to Apr ’98

Journal of Chemical Education CD ROM 2000 contains all J Chem Ed issues from 1997 to 2000

BooksBen Selinger Chemistry in the Marketplace (5th Ed.)

Ben Selinger Why the Watermelon won’t Ripen in your Armpit

By ordering/subscribing through the Chem Ed Group of RACI (SA) rather than through the overseaspublishers of the magazines the hassle and expense of bank drafts in foreign currencies is avoided. Ourmagazine prices are cheaper than direct subscription prices from the publishers.

For prices, catalogues and order forms or further information please contactBob Morton, Publications Coordinator:

Mail: PO Box 749, Blackwood, SA, 5051

Email: rjmorton@adelaide.on. net

Phone: 08 8278 5916

The Royal Australian Chemical Institute (S.A. Branch)Chemical Education GroupPO Box 749Blackwood SA 5051

Ph: (08) 8278 5916Email: rjmorton@adelaide.on.net

A.B.N. 33 087 493 176

36

Aust. J. Ed. Chem., 2004, 64,

Contents Page

* Mind your step: Bridging the research - practice gap. 5Onno de Jong

* Teacher reactions to radical curriculum change: The journey to again become expert. 10Warren Beasley

* The development and use of a pedagogical history for a key chemical idea the caseof ions in solution. 16Kevin C. de Berg

* Chemical bonding - Two ideas that never caught on. 20Ian Rae

In the classroom

* An IR investigation of the CO dipole direction and other properties:An APCELL experiment. 24Kieran F. Lim ( )

* Chemical education: The element of change, a personal perspective. 29Subramaniam Sotheeswaran

Book Review

Prometheans in the lab, by Sharon Bertsch McGrayne 33 Bette Davidowitz

The word on chemistry 34 Allan Mitchell

* Refereed papers

Cover photographs: Courtesy of Dr Ian Jamie Participants in an APCELL workshop