The Teaching of Chemistry

We now return to the nature of teaching that had evolved in the Arts from the very beginning of the university and that like research had fallen into two parts by 1800, that in colleges in a tutorial style and that by the university professors, lectures only. It is likely that the structure of college teaching had developed from 

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Foremost we hope - and believe - that chemoinformatics will become of increasing importance in the teaching of chemistry. The instruments and methods that are used in chemistry will continue to swamp us with data and we have to manage these data to increase our chemical knowledge. We have to understand more deeply, and exploit, the results of our experiments. Concomitantly, demands on the properties of the compounds that are produced by the chemical and pharmaceutical industries will continue to rise. We will need materials that are better we need them to be more selective, have fewer undesirable properties, able to be broken down easily in the environment without producing toxic by-products, and so on. This asks for more insight into the relationships between chemical structures and their properties. Furthermore, we have to plan and perform fewer and more efficient experiments. 

Bennett, J., Holman, J. (2002). Context-based approaches to the teaching of chemistry What are they and what are their effects In J. K. Gilbert, O. De Jong, R. Justi, D. F. Treagust, J. H. Van Driel (Eds.), Chemical education Towards research-based practice (pp. 165-184). Dordrecht, the Netherlands Kluwer Aeademie Press. 

Instead of a theory to elucidate the important unsolved problems of chemistry, theoretical chemistry has become synonymous with what is also known as Quantum Chemistry. This discipline has patently failed to have any impact on the progress of mainstream chemistry. A new edition of the world s leading Physical Chemistry textbook [4] was published in the year that the Nobel prize was awarded to two quantum chemists, without mentioning either the subject of their work, nor the names of the laureates. Nevertheless, the teaching of chemistry, especially at the introductory level, continues in terms of handwaiving by reference to the same quantum chemistry, that never penetrates the surface of advanced quantum theory. 

See Bensaude-Vincent s analysis of Lavoisier s views on the need to reorganize the teaching of chemistry, including previously unpublished texts, in "A View of the Chemical Revolution through Contemporary Textbooks Lavoisier, Fourcroy and Chaptal," BJHS 23 (1990) 435460. 

Two teaching chairs in chemistry were installed at the Jardin du Roi in Paris during the seventeenth century, and the lectures of Nicolas Lemery and Nicolas Le Fevre became standard texts for the next fifty years. 54 The teaching of chemistry and pharmacy was widely practiced in eighteenth-century medical faculties, exemplified at a very high standard in the lectures of Hermann Boerhaave at Leiden, Bergmann at Uppsala, and Black at Edinburgh. 

In 1893, Charles Friedel sought to persuade his Sorbonne colleagues of the need to teach physical chemistry, saying that there are new theories and new needs in the teaching of chemistry each day "this is especially true for phenomena on the boundaries of chemistry and physics, and where considerations of the chemical molecule intervene, which appears to be, in a lot of cases at least, identifical with the physical molecule [my emphasis], "Rapport par Charles Friedel," 109110, in Pieces-annexes Proces-Verbaux de la Faculte des Sciences de Paris, dated June 1893. 

Quoted in D. Bettridge, "The Teaching of Chemistry in Victorian and Edwardian Times," RIC Reviews 3 (1970) 161176,on 170. Also see H. E. Roscoe, The Life and Experiences of Sir Henry Enfield Roscoe (London Macmillan, 1906). 

Bettridge, D. "The Teaching of Chemistry in Victorian and Edwardian Times." Royal Institute of Chemistry Reviews 3 (1970) 161176. 

Physical chemistry, as a separate subdiscipline of chemistry, grew out of the application of the methods of physics to chemical problems. Historically, it distinguished itself from the other subdisciplines of chemistry by its use of mathematics, by the precision with which measurements are performed, and by the emphasis on atomic and molecular processes under examination (/). At the same time as the discipline was developing, a reform of the teaching of chemistry was needed as a discussion of the systematic behavior of reactions was desired to prepare students to deal with the new ways in which material was being discussed. 

The teaching of chemistry has for too long been a process in which facts are transmitted from the notebook of the professor into the notebook of the student without going through the heads of either. 

We also introduce an issue which bedevilled the teaching of chemistry to women whether it should be academic chemistry to enable matriculating girls to take their place alongside men in university laboratories, or domestic chemistry that would be relevant to women s lives. We revisit the issue in Chap. 3 in the context of King s College of Household and Social Science and of Battersea Polytechnic. 

In the late 19th century, the chemistry departments of the constituent Colleges of the University of London had been involved in the discourse on the teaching of chemistry as a pure or applied subject, or somewhere in between.02 The antecedents of Imperial College (IC) certainly saw themselves as belonging to the applied camp. 

Anderson, R. G. W., The Playfair Collection and the Teaching of Chemistry at the University ofEdinburgh 1713-1858 (Edinburgh The Royal Scottish Museum, 1978). 

For example, fevery boy now knows about atoms, and accepts them as part of his world—they are split in the atomic bomb and in the comic papers, they stare at him from advertisements. In this book I begin the teaching of chemistry by discussing the properties of substances in terms of atoms and molecules. The subject is then developed in as orderly a manner as has seemed possible at the present stage of chemical knowledge."... 

The teaching of chemistry can be carried out in a better way and it is better understood and appreciated by the students if it is taught as units of immediate interest to the pupils. Such units may be (i) life centred (ii) environment centred (iii) life and environment centred. 

Knowledge Aim The teaching of chemistry should increase the knowledge of the individual and such an increase in... 

Skill Aim Like any other science subject, the teaching of chemistry should aim to develop useful skills pertaining to scientific observation, experimentation and practical use of scientific facts and principles. 

By the teaching of chemistry we expect to develop the following abilities in the pupil. 

To achieve this objective the teaching of chemistry has to be done in an evolutionary way. For this the curriculum should include such topics where it is possible to reveal stirring biographical anecdotes, some scientific stories having some incidents of adventure, charm and romance. It is possible to achieve this objective by teaching history of chemistry including life stories of some chemists. This objectives can also be achieved by telling the impact of modern chemistry on life. 

B. Murphy, C. Murphy and B. Hathaway, Can Computer Aided Learning Benefit the Teaching of Chemistry , Software Reviews, 1997, 15,12-16. 

Knowledge Aim The teaching of chemistry should increase the knowledge of the individual and such an increase in knowledge should help him in understanding himself and his environment. Thus this knowledge should help him in his daily hfe. 

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