This study provides an analysis of selected aspects of the intended curriculum related to redox reactions as represented in secondary chemistry textbooks from the People's Republic of China, with a special view also on Hong Kong, Shanghai, Taiwan, and the Chinese minority in Malaysia. This study reveals how chemistry textbooks deal with visual…

Examines the reasoning behind views of atoms and molecules held by students (n=48) and investigates how mental models may assist or hamper further instruction in chemistry. Reports that students prefer models of atoms and molecules that depict them as discrete, concrete structures. Recommends that teachers develop student modeling skills and…

Discusses the development and evaluation of an instrument to measure secondary students' understanding of scientific models. Involves (n=228) secondary science students and identifies five themes of students' understanding of scientific models including scientific models as multiple representations, models as exact replicas, models as explanatory…

Examines how chemistry/science textbooks from different countries and written at different levels of education deal with physical and chemical change. Results indicate that the ideas concerning the teaching and learning of physical and chemical change evident in textbooks are not complete and textbooks seldom justify the content they cover in…

Questions how secondary school students view science models. Concludes by recommending that teachers mold scientific modeling to their students, encourage the use of multiple models in science lessons, progressively introduce sophisticated models, systematically present in-class models using the Focus, Action, and Reflection (FAR) guide, and…

Reports on a study involving two each year-12, undergraduate and postgraduate Australian students. Elicits learners' mental models for chemical bonding using semi-structured interviews comprising a three-phase interview protocol. Concludes that learners across all three academic levels preferred simple, realistic mental models for chemical…

Analogies are believed to help students structure new knowledge and are considered to be especially useful for topics of an abstract or submicroscopic nature. Analogies, however, have also been identified as a factor in the students' misunderstanding of chemical concepts. This paper reports on the literature identifying the advantages and…

Discusses the need for including noise pollution in the science curriculum and describes 10 activities for improving students' awareness and understanding of and concern for noise and its effects. (Author/JN)

Describes an approach for teaching with analogies in secondary science classes and gives an example using the three states of matter. (14 references) (Author/MKR)

Survey of coordinators, teachers, and students in six designated technology schools in Western Australia revealed varying degrees of success in implementing the curriculum. Three crucial factors were identified: (1) continuous coordination by someone with adequate time and resources; (2) thorough documentation; and (3) enough time for faculty to…

Reports in detail on a year-long case study of multiple-model use at grade 11. Suggests that students who socially negotiated the shared and unshared attributes of common analogical models for atoms, molecules, and chemical bonds used these models more consistently in their explanations. (Author/CCM)

Describes the development and application of a two-tier multiple choice diagnostic instrument to assess high school students' understanding of inorganic chemistry qualitative analysis. Shows that the Grade 10 students had difficulty understanding the reactions involved in the identification of cations and anions, for example, double decomposition…

Grade 10 students in Singapore find qualitative analysis one of the more difficult topics in their external examinations. Fifty-one grade 10 students from three schools were interviewed to investigate their perceptions about learning qualitative analysis. The results showed that students found qualitative analysis tedious and difficult to…

Uses a two-tier, multiple-choice diagnostic instrument to determine (n=915) grade 10 students' understanding of the acid, base, and salt reactions involved in basic qualitative analysis. Reports that many students did not understand the formation of precipitates and the complex salts, acid/salt-base reactions, and thermal decomposition involved in…

Explores secondary school, undergraduate, and graduate level learners' mental models of bonding with ionic substances through an interview protocol involving the use of physical substances and a focus card containing depictions of ionic bonding and structure. Suggests that teachers and university faculty need to provide stronger links between the…