MAKING CHEMISTRY TEACHING RELEVANT

Although school chemistry programs set out to develop conceptual understanding in students and an appreciation of the way scientists do things, the relevance of the teaching in providing a useful education is suspect. The stress on conceptual understanding and the appreciation of the nature of science tends not to be relevant for functionality in our lives i.e. relevant to the home, the environment, future employment and most definitely for future changes and developments within the society.

Rather, the understanding tends to be geared to internal concepts within the subject itself. Concepts such as atomic structure, or chemical bonding are almost universally section headings in chemistry courses, yet in daily life, for example - improving the quality of the air for our health, is potentially a much more relevant starting point.

Attitudes towards the learning of chemistry are important and for this the need for interacting with issues in society by utilising the conceptual chemistry acquired is important but insufficient and there is a need to go further and incorporate the making of rational decisions geared to societal concerns. However, these are areas that are rarely considered in many chemistry courses.

The Meaning of Chemistry Education

But is chemistry education ‘chemistry through education’, or ‘education through chemistry’ ? It other words, does it need to be considered as a component of chemistry as a body of knowledge, or as a component of education?

The following table gives a comparison illustrating the differences in emphases between ‘chemistry through education’ and ‘education through chemistry’.

It is clear that the term ‘education through chemistry’ stresses education. And the medium through which this education takes place is the subject of chemistry.

A Shift of Emphasis

There is a need for a shift of emphasis tin the teaching of chemistry. The shift is from learning chemistry as a body of knowledge to promoting the educational skills to be acquired through the subject of chemistry. And as attempts to gain ‘education through chemistry’ simply by gaining knowledge are shown to be unsuccessful, the approach needs to shift from one bound by subject chapter headings, or sections to one which more closely relates to the issues and concern within society. Also, to ensure relevance of the conceptual learning within chemistry for social issues, there needs to be a shift from an introduction of the issue followed by the conceptual learning towards the interacting with the issue in a social context and then, as an important step, making use of the conceptual chemistry that is being learned to arrive at a socio-scientific decision.

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