chemistry you need to know research supporting the curriculum

Chemistry You Need to Know

Research supporting the curriculum

A quote that sums it all up

“We believe, after examining the findings of cognitive science, that the most effective way of learning skills is “in context”, placing learning objectives within a real environment rather than insisting that students first learn in the abstract what they will be expected to apply.” From the Executive Summary of What Work Requires of

Schools from The Secretary’s Commision on Achieving Necessary Skills, US Dept of Labor, June 1991

What’s wrong with the traditional curriculum?

Traditional Chemistry Curriculum

Learn all the concepts

Apply them to real-life scenarios

Problems with the Traditional CurriculumStudents don’t see connections between

conceptsStudents don’t see application to their livesStudents never read the “application”

included in traditional textbooksThe order makes sense to those that know

the whole story

What does a contextual approach look like?

Contextual Chemistry Curriculum

Learn as scientists learn

Arrange concepts in need-to-know order

What makes up a contextual program?The concepts are fit to the theme…not the

other way around!Text, practice problems and labs utilize the

themeThemes are chosen that interest studentsInquiry labs are used when appropriate

Research Supporting Contextual Teaching

Working Memory

Working memory is the memory we can currently access and use

People have between 5 and 9 “slots” of working memory that can be used at any given time

As they understand and integrate knowledge together, they begin to form chunks—each chunk then only ties up one working memory slot

The more information that is chunked, the more information you can deal with at one time

Working Memory & Teenagers

Although people have between 5 and 9 working memory slots available, how many are used for other things: Daydreaming Distractions Emotional concerns Physical concerns All the other things teenagers think about

Motivation

Motivation is the allocation of working memory slots

When students are motivated, they are more willing to allocate more or all of their working memory slots to the task at hand rather than other concerns in their life

Increased motivation = increased ability to process, integrate and understand information

Contextual Teaching and Motivation

Contextual teaching increases motivation, as shown in survey data to come later in this presentation

Therefore, contextual teaching leads to increased allocation of working memory slots

Short-term and long-term memory

The mind makes determinations on which pieces of information to discard and which to move to long-term memory

As much as 90% of the information in short-term memory can be discarded within 24 hours

Getting information into long-term memory

In order for information to move from short-term to long-term, the information must: Have meaning or relevance to the learner Be understood by the learner

For example, you may have understood the plot of a novel you read many years ago, but if it had no personal meaning or relevance, it’s now forgotten (Johnson)

Providing Relevance

Many programs provide relevance in side-bars, special vignettes, or after the “learning” has taken place This is called “application”

Application and contextual teaching are not the same

In application, you’re providing the meaning and relevance too late—you need to provide the context and meaning first, before you ask students to learn

Research Supporting Content Choices & Placement

College opinions on what HS students should learn Deters completed a survey of over 100 college

professors and published the result in J Chem Ed (October 2003)

7 topics were statistically in the top for importance: Basic skills (units, sig figs, graphing, etc.) Moles Dimensional analysis Stoichiometry Nomenclature Atomic structure Balancing equation

College opinions on what HS students should learn Besides the top 7 topics, many professors indicated in

comments that they preferred student that were comfortable talking about science, had positive attitudes (not afraid of chemistry), an appreciation for science in their lives and problem-solving abilities rather than those with more content memorization

Other studies have shown this as well (Gold, Barnard)

This is supported by research showing 70% of material learned in science courses is forgotten within 1 year if not used—they’ll forget most of the content between the HS course and their college course (Shumba)

HS Teachers’ Opinions

Deters surveyed 571 HS chemistry Teachers and published the results in J Chem Ed (Nov, 2006)

The HS teachers were much more focused on content than college professors

There was a list of topics that more than 90% of the teachers agreed should be in the class & are currently being taught

There was another list of topics that they agreed should be in the class but that they didn’t have time to teach (acid/base, collision theory, etc.)

Integration of this research

The topics desired by college professors and thought most important by HS teachers are in the first 6 chapters of the text (which are written to be followed sequentially) Placement of some of the “wish” list topics in these

chapters will allow more teachers to get to them The topics that far fewer HS teachers agreed

upon are in the last 6 chapters (which are written to be ala-carte and do not depend on each other) to allow for flexibility and personal interest and goals

Research supporting lab format and integration

America’s Lab Report

The National Research Council released America’s Lab Report in 2006.

This was a summarization of a large body of research on lab programs and suggestions for making lab programs effective

Their main suggestion was the creation of Integrated Instructional Units

Integrated Instructional Units

Labs should be integrated in the section—used before content introduction as much as possible

Saving labs until the end of the section, chapter or having them in a separate lab manual does not promote integration in the students mind with the content in lectures, discussions or readings

This curriculum contains embedded labs—placed where they fit in the reading/progression of the course.

Use of inquiry

The report also suggested the use of student-designed labs

Inquiry is used in this text by having students design their own procedures for investigations at least 1 time per chapter

Guidance during Inquiry

Research shows that novices at problem-solving processes need significant guidance This allows them to devote more working memory slots

to the science and not the design process

The text includes a section teaching students how to design labs and uses significant guidance in the beginning

Guidance is “weaned” away as students become more comfortable with the design process (begin to “chunk” it)

Results of student attitude surveys during field testing

Student Questionnaire

15 questions given as pre-survey. Previous science courses & books

15 questions given as post-survey Questions were matched, but pertained to this

class and this book.

Textbooks apply science to my life

Contextual Curriculum +1.68

Traditional Curriculum +0.54

Contextual gained 1.14 more than Traditional

I’m interested in chemistry


Traditional Curriculum -0.56


I feel chemistry is relevant to my life




I can see how different science concepts relate to each other




I like science class




I am able to read and understand science textbooks




I feel science is relevant to my life




I enjoy labs




I feel comfortable “doing science”




I feel comfortable using math in science




I understand what chemistry is about




I feel like I’ve “done science” in science classes




I learn better if science concepts are applied to my life




I enjoy designing my own lab procedures



Contextual lost 0.37 more than Traditional, but still showed a gain in student attitude

Curriculum Components

What’s the big picture?

Each chapter has: Introductory activity Sections learning material needed to understand the

theme. Each has practice problems including conceptual questions

Integrated labs, using the theme product whenever possible

At least one student-designed lab per chapter Chapter culminating project integrating all concepts and

applied to the theme (varying from pre-designed labs to student-designed labs to research and creative writing assignments).

Chapter summary and review

Support for the Teacher

Teacher’s Wrap-Around Edition

Practice problem answersTeaching tipsDemonstrationsLab prep/timingLab hints & sample dataOutside resources

Available in EDITABLE Digital form

PowerPoint presentations for each section including animations of molecular processes

Color images (in PPT format) from the text All labs to allow customization & printing/copying

for students to take into lab with them rather than carrying their book

Computerized EvamView TestBank All questions with numbers and most with chemical

formulas are algorithm questions, meaning there is almost an infinite possibility for different versions at the push of a button.

In Print & EDITABLE Digital

Reading guides for each sectionPractice problems for sections with

mathematic applicationSection quizzes for each sectionGrading Rubrics for each inquiry lab and

performance assessmentPre-made tests for each section

2 matched short versions & 2 matched long versions

References

References

US Department of Labor: The Secretary’s Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills, What Work Requires of Schools: A SCANS Report for America 2000, June 1991

Brooks, David. http://dwb4.unl.edu/TheoryPaper/compth.html, a paper integrating learning theories (working memory, motivation, etc.)

Johnson, Elaine. Contextual Teaching and Learning: What it is and why it works, Corwin Press, 2002

Deters, Kelly; What should we be teaching in high school chemistry, J Chem Ed, October 2003

Deters, Kelly; What are we teaching in high school chemistry, J Chem Ed, November 2006

More References

Shumba, Overson; Glass, Lynne W. J of Res. In Sci. Teach., 1994, 31, 381

Gold, Marvin. J Chem Educ. 1988, 65, 780 Barnard, JD (1956) Teaching High School

Science. Washington, DO: American Educational Research Association: Department of Classroom Teachers

National Research Council, America’s Lab Report: Investigations in High School Science. National Academies Press, 2006

chemistry you need to know research supporting the curriculum

Documents

slots of working memory

shortterm memory

working memory slotthe

memory slots available

hoursgetting information

pieces of information

contextual teaching

contextual approach