How Do Preservice Chemistry Teachers Rate Tasks Following the Construct of School-Related Content Knowledge in a Concept-Orientated Course on Organic Chemistry?

Abstract

In this paper, we describe a study on tasks following the construct of school-related content knowledge. We know from previous studies that such tasks were rated by the preservice chemistry teachers as important for their future profession. Those studies were conducted in a traditional course on organic chemistry which was organized around chemical families. Therefore, we used and evaluated the tasks again in a new course on organic chemistry which is organized around basic concepts in organic chemistry. The results of this evaluation show that the students rate the tasks equally well but use other arguments for their rating. They do not focus only on the content of the tasks and whether this content belongs to the school curriculum or not. The students of the conceptual course rated the content more often (95%) as important for their future profession compared with the students in the traditional course (57%). Both groups of students rated the importance of the nature of the task the same way.

Newly Designed Laboratory Course for Preservice Chemistry Teachers: Do the Students Rate Their Practical Skills As Relevant for Their Future Profession?

“…Two experiments focused mainly on the acquisition of practical skills, for example their first thin layer chromatography using paprika spice, and one experiment also on their own planning of the experiment. For the experiment “sweet chemistry”, the task was designed using the construct of school-related content knowledge − and used as a context of a realistic scenario of a lesson at school. Using this text, the students had to plan and conduct the experiment.…”

“…The evaluation shows that the students now rate tasks with content they do not associate with their own school days as relevant, because they focus more on the concepts than on the content. 24 Combining the idea of focusing on practical techniques 18 with what is known about the perceived relevance of preservice chemistry teachers 20−24 resulted in the design of a new laboratory course, which will be described and discussed in detail below.…”

“…For this course, also, tasks designed after the concept of school-related content knowledge have been designed, used, and evaluated. The evaluation shows that the students now rate tasks with content they do not associate with their own school days as relevant, because they focus more on the concepts than on the content …”

“…Combining the idea of focusing on practical techniques with what is known about the perceived relevance of preservice chemistry teachers − resulted in the design of a new laboratory course, which will be described and discussed in detail below.…”

Understanding and Learning of Ionic Organic Reactions in Organic Chemistry Based on Acid–Base Theory

“…New technologies, methods, and reactions continuously increase the number of organic compounds , and expand the organic chemistry knowledge system, usually constructed by classifying organic compounds on the basis of their functional groups. , The added knowledge needs to be incorporated into teaching, and in practice, the learning of organic chemistry has an over 30% failure rate, presenting challenges for innovative and efficient organic chemistry teaching strategies. , Researchers have proposed methods, such as teaching by concept maps, , simplifying textbooks, and reducing the content, that solved the problem of large content volume to a certain extent but raised the abstraction level during learning and reduced the depth and systematicity. Approaches focusing on parts of the textbook content can increase students’ interest and improve the teaching effectiveness. − Meanwhile, more attention is required to improve learning efficiency. The currently reported organic chemistry teaching efficiency is not high, and systematic innovation in teaching remains a challenge.…”