Chemistry classroom teachers

In Pease v. Sinclair Refinery Co., a manufacturer of chemistry teachers demonstration kits offered one kit which contained sample tubes of different liquids, one of which was supposed to be kerosene. Unfortunately, since kerosene has the same physical appearance as water, the manufacturer substituted water for kerosene in the tube, perhaps in an effort to save costs. A severe injury occurred when the water was inadvertently mixed with a chemical which was explosive in the presence of water. The court held that the manufacturer should have foreseen that, in a chemistry classroom setting, a number of chemicals might come in contact with each other, most certainly with water. The court balanced the gravity of the possible harm - explosion, against what it viewed as the ease with which the manufacturer could have provided a warning. Compare the results in that case, however, with the Croteau v. Borden Co.f where a chemical manufacturer was held not liable to a laboratory technician for a failure to warn that if one of its chemicals was mixed with a wide variety of other chemicals an explosion might be produced. 

McRobbie, C. and Tobin, K. (1994). Restraints to reform The Congruence of teacher and student actions in a chemistry classroom. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, New Orleans. 

The status of understanding something is ultimately conferred by a group comprised of some recognised scholars of the day. However, in the case of the constructivist pedagogy-oriented chemistry classroom, the students themselves can model this process as well. They can arrive at agreement scientifically and collaboratively, under the teacher s watchful eye, with the teacher parachuting in to assist as a last resort. 

While the results of the two physics and physical science-based research studies on the effectiveness of the IHV technique are suggestive and promising, research on IHV use in the chemistry classroom has thus far been limited to teachers rather triumphal anecdotal reports in a laboratory high school setting. However, we anticipate that such studies will indeed be conducted in more real-world classroom settings in the near future. We forecast that Feifer s long-standing assertion will be supported ... 

In summary, enhancing chemistry teachers knowledge, skills, and experience, regarding chemical education research can contribute to the development of a research-based practice in the chemistry classroom. 

The Partners for Terrific Science program works to bring chemistry alive for classroom teachers. Only when the teachers are excited about chemistry can the transfer "science excitement to their students. Partners can work for groups of all sizes. All that is needed for a core program is one interested industry willing to work with one receptive school district. For more information about the Partners for Terrific Science program, contact Mickey Sarquis, the program director. 

This first example (see Fig. 5) comes from a freshman student teacher of chemistry who had just entered a university teacher education program. We can assume that most of the imagination and attitude shown toward chemistry teaching in this case stems from this young person s past experience as a pupil in school, mass media input, and both peer group and societal influences. This particular drawing portrays a very structured chemistry classroom situation. This represents the attitude that chemistry classrooms are quite regularly teacher-centered and traditional in their makeup. 

Based on observations, the teachers concluded that there was a meaningful change in students behavior in the chemistry classroom and in their attitudes toward science, more specifically ... 

Finally, the interviews and the observed classroom discussions provided an opportunity to examine a teacher s preparations, actions, and reflections with respect to the use of multiple analogies when teaching chemical equilibrium. Additional research into student understandings and the use of teacher presented analogies will be helpful in enhancing the use of multiple analogies in the chemistry classroom. 

In the chemistry classroom, the teacher can provide the students with the names and molecular formula (columns 1 2 in Table 1) and ask them to use the CMM software for drawing structural formula, ball-and-stick, and 3D models (columns 3, 4 5 in Table 1) for each one of the compounds. Another option is to submit a similar table with blanks (empty cells) in various rows and columns and ask the students to fill the missing cells. For example, give the molecular formula and 3D model of propanoic acid but leave blanks in the columns of compound name, structural formula, and ball-and-stick model. 

Prof. Dr. Onno De Jong was a teacher in several secondary schools in the Netherlands, thereafter became chemistry educator and researcher at Utrecht University (The Netherlands), and finally was professor of chemistry education at Karlstad University (Sweden). He also worked as invited scholar at universities in South Africa, Malaysia, Australia and Taiwan. He has ongoing interest in bridging the gap between Theory (given in chemistry teacher courses) and Practice (in chemistry classrooms). 

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