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DIFFERENT APPROACHES IN

SCIENCE EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH

Yuli Rahmawati, M.Sc., Ph.D.Jurusan Kimia, FMIPA UNJ

THE NATURE OF CHEMICAL KNOWLEDGE

AND CHEMICAL EDUCATION

Yuli Rahmawati, M.Sc., Ph.D.Jurusan Kimia, FMIPA UNJ

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INTRODUCTION• Improving teaching and learning in chemistry

through understanding structure of chemical knowledge

• Philosophical of chemistry• The role of reduction, explanations, laws and

supervinience• Reconceptualise chemistry education (theories

of learning, curriculum design, and teacher education

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HISTORY AND PHYLOSOPHY OF SCIENCE• Theory change in science and children cognitive

development as key role (Hewson, 1981, Posner, Strike, Hewson, & Gertzog, 1982)

• Science needs to be connected to its social and historical roots (Duschl, Hamilton, Grandy, 1992)

• The importance of students engagement in scientific inquiry (Gallagher, Lederman, 1992)

• Unifying concepts and processes (evidence, models, and explanations, and form and function) to facilitate students way of thinking about and integrating a range of basic ideas that explain the natural and designed world

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WHAT WENT WRONG…

• Not pay attention of philosophy of chemistry• Reductionism as a major factor has inhibited the

development of philosophy of chemistry as a field of inquiry

• Chemistry as branch of physics

• In chemistry: qualitative aspects of matter and class concepts

• Quantum mechanics • The most dramatic prediction

in the history of science (arrangement elements in periodic table)

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TEACHING CRITICAL THEMES ON CHEMICAL KNOWLEDGE

Philosophy of chemistry Guide chemistry education into chemistry knowledge

Scery and McIntyre (1997) highlighted reduction, laws, explanations, and supervenience as important theme

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The Case Of Reduction

Ontological reduction of chemistry to physics is a foregone conclusion. Chemical systems is not a special class of physical system.

In secondary schools: chemical composition , molecular structure, and bonding (sophistication and complexity)

Atomic and molecular components do not show this property of composition

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The Case Of Reduction

Composition, bonding, and molecular structure are introduced without philosophical deeper on relationship between them

Not only reductionism, but also the chemical concept itself

Learning issues around reduction: a multiplicity of interpretations, design tasks, and assessments of relationship between molecular structures and chemical composition can be promoted in strudents thinking.

Promoting authentic scientific discourses and scientific argumentation

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The Case Of Explaination

Formation of bonds, acid base behaviour, redox chemistry, photochemistry and reactivity studies ( interchange of electrons between various kinds of orbital-level of atomic physics)

Electronic orbital can’t be observed according quantum mechanics

Useful explanatory nature of electronic orbitals in chemical explanations and their ontological status in quantum physics

Classroom discussion based on such distinction

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The Case Of Laws

Good example on periodic law (Mendeleev and Meyer) which is different from laws of physics

Sodium and Potassium represent a repetition of lithium, but they are no sense identical

Mendeleev used a vast store of chemical intuition rather than a straightforward algorithm as a physicist used when operating physical laws

In classroom, students understand how chemical laws are generated and how they are differ from laws in science

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The Case Of Supervenience

In a relationship asymmetric dependence. Relationship of two macroscopic system

Supervenience argument: two compounds have identical manner, share the same smell. Two compound share same macroscopic property of smells, not necessary identical in microscopic level

Collaboration biochemist and neurophysiologist (depend on philosophical consideration not empirical facts)

In teaching< relationship between colour, smell, texture and microscopic properties such as molecular structure and chemical bonding

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IMPLICATIONS FOR EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH

• The nature of chemistry (historical and philosophical dimensions of chemistry)

• Implications on theories of learning, curriculum design, and teacher education

• FIRST: Shifted from conceptual to epistemological ground (what would be the developmental pattern in students’ thinking with respect to understanding of how knowledge growth occurs in chemistry)

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IMPLICATIONS FOR EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH

• SECOND: curriculum design with chemical epistemology for educational reform

• THIRD: teaching involves the coordination of content knowledge of a domain and knowledge about epistemology of that domain. Teacher need to be educated about how knowledge is structured in the discipline that they are teaching. Teacher education need to be informed by and about philosophy of chemistry

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Implications For Theory Of Learning

• Conventionally by problem solving and learning of science process skills

• Learning of chemical knowledge (conceptual understanding Vs learning criteria and standards)

• On students learning: neglected philosophical consideration on laws

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Implications For Theory Of Learning

Students difficulties: interpreting Bohr model of atom, Lewis model (electrophilicity and nucleophilicity)

The nature of chemical explanations and how they are generated and evaluated for improving students understanding of key concepts in chemistry

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Implications For Curriculum Design

Content knowledge and social aspect of chemistry

Substances Approach: substances (mixture or pure, physical and chemical change), Elements, Compound, solutions, state of matter, energy, kinetic theory before chemical reaction

Atomic structure Approach : atomic theory, symbolic representation and calculation (mole), kinetic theory, phase equilibrium, atomic structure, and periodicity, chemical equilibrium, reaction rates before chemistry of elements and chemical reactions

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Implications For Curriculum Design

Chemical Reactions Approach: separating pure substances from the mixtures and compounds (physical separation processes to solve problems of chemical reactions), Reactions (substance's are decomposed by heating in the air)

Societal Approach (core concepts of chemistry with a society and connection with everyday life): nuclear, organic, industrial chemistry, biochemistry, issues on clean water, conserving chemical resources, feeding world, and personal health decisions

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Implications For Curriculum Design

Chemical Reactions Approach: separating pure substances from the mixtures and compounds (physical separation processes to solve problems of chemical reactions), Reactions (substance's are decomposed by heating in the air)

Societal Approach (core concepts of chemistry with a society and connection with everyday life): nuclear, organic, industrial chemistry, biochemistry, issues on clean water, conserving chemical resources, feeding world, and personal health decisions

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Implications For Curriculum Design

Philosophy of chemistry consideration (Acid Bases Curriculum, Erduran, 1999).First: role of models in chemistry (content as the context not as the end with process of generation, evaluation, and revision). Second: students initial concepts generates the model, Third: epistemological reasoning (the goal of nurturing students; use of criteria and standards)

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Implications For Teacher Education

Expertise in teaching requires both knowledge of a content of a domain and knowledge about the epistemology of that domain

Chemistry teachers have had little exposure to issues of chemical knowledge beyond content knowledge

Reduction, explaination, law, and supervinience are strengtening teacher subject matter knowledge and pedagogical knowledge

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Implications For Teacher Education

First: teacher subject matter knowledge (reinforce topics such as quantum mechanics, periodicity, and structure/function relationships in chemistry)

Second: teachers pedagogical content knowledge (understanding of reasoning underlying subject matter). Teachers understand how knowledge growth occurs in chemistry, so they will be able to translate chemical knowledge

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CONCLUSION

Reconceptualised chemistry education with integrated philosophy of chemistry

Reduction, explanation, laws, and supervenience as critical themes in philosophical of chemistry

It has implications for theories of learning, curriculum design, and teacher education