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Students’ application of chemical concepts when solving chemistry problems in different contexts
Umeå University, Faculty of Science and Technology, Department of Science and Mathematics Education. (UmSER)
IPN Leibniz Institute for Science and Mathematics Education, University of Kiel, Germany.
2015 (English)Conference paper, Oral presentation with published abstract (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

Context-based learning approaches have been implemented in school science over the last 40 years as a way to enhance students’ interest in, as well as learning outcomes from, science. Contexts are used to connect science with the students’ lives and to provide a frame in which concepts can be learned and applied on a ‘need-to-know’-principle. While effects on interest are coherently reported as positive, they are more diverse regarding cognitive learning outcomes. Hence, the demand for further research on criteria of context-based problems and problem-solving processes has been stated. In this talk, a study is presented investigating students’ application of chemical concepts when solving context-based chemistry problems. Tasks for context-based problem solving have been designed systematically, using different combinations of contexts, topics and chemistry concepts in relation to the syllabus. Empirical data were collected using think-aloud interviews where 20 upper secondary students used their chemical content knowledge to solve the problems. The 15 context-based problems raised challenges within organic chemistry where concepts like electronegativity, polarity and solubility had to be applied. The difficulty to differentiate between intra- and intermolecular bonding emphasised in earlier research has also been apparent in this study. Besides the structural formula, which was an important part for the students when solving the tasks, the contextualisation of the problems was often used in the responses; students related their answers to the personal, societal or professional context in different ways. Results will be discussed and implications for context-based teaching, learning and assessment will be given.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2015.
National Category
Didactics
Research subject
didactics of chemistry
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-103697OAI: oai:DiVA.org:umu-103697DiVA, id: diva2:854035
Conference
11th Conference of the European Science Education Research Association (ESERA), 31.8-4.9 2015, Helsinki, Finland
Available from: 2015-09-15 Created: 2015-05-27 Last updated: 2018-06-07Bibliographically approved

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Broman, Karolina

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CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf