Participatory Teaching and Learning Approach: A Framework for Teaching Redox Reactions at High School Level

Abstract

This study aimed at designing a framework to help students develop a conceptual understanding of redox reactions, which draws on constructivist learning theory. This framework was in the form of participatory teaching and learning approach comprising Insight, Interaction, Task, and Forum. The framework was designed and developed based on the literature and used in a teaching trial. At the prototype phase of the design-based approach, a mixed methods design was employed in data collection. Fifteen students from a second-year senior high school class responded to the achievement test and interacted with the researchers. A stratified sampling procedure was used to select the students. In lessons on redox reactions, the framework helped the teacher to identify students" alternative conceptions and confronted them through cognitive engagements leading to conceptual understanding in redox reactions. Percentages, related samples t-test, and themes were used to analyse data. The results showed that there was an improvement in students" conceptual understanding of redox reactions. It is, therefore, recommended that chemistry educators and researchers should use the framework in large scale research to assure the scientific community the efficacy of it in developing conceptual change in students. Contribution/Originality:The study contributes to the existing literature by the design and development of an alternative framework for participatory instruction, which is all encompassing in approach. Unlike other instructions, the framework; Insight, Interaction, Task, and Forum, takes advantage of alternative conceptions and ends with students" ability to evaluate colleague"s presentations. INTRODUCTIONConcepts in electrochemistry (such as oxidation-reduction reactions) are considered to be challenging to high school students with associate alternative conceptions (Osterlund and Ekborg, 2009;Adu-Gyamfi et al., 2015;Bong and Lee, 2016;Adu-Gyamfi and Ampiah, 2019a;2019b). Students labelled the cathode of an electrolytic cell as the positive terminal and the anode, as the negative terminal, which is considered as an alternative conception. This was an alternative conception because students have explained oxidation occurs at the anode and the reduction, at the cathode, something they picked from text books with no conceptual understanding (Bong and Lee, 2016).Regarding balancing redox reactions, students" alternative conceptions are associated with the introduction of H2O, OH -, and H + . For instance, students have explained balancing of redox reactions in acidic medium as H + ions being introduced just because the reaction occurs in the acidic medium (Adu-Gyamfi et al., 2015). Students have

Gender Variations Favouring Male Students in Perceived Nature of Learning Mole Concept

“…Findings on perceptions of students on nature of the mole concept show that the students involved in the research can improve their conceptual understanding on the mole if teachers select and use the right teaching and learning resources in teaching the concept. This is no surprise as it has been proven in a lot of research (such as Adu-Gyamfi et al, 2020) that the use of teaching and learning resources help teachers to engage students in participatory learning to help them improve their conceptual understanding of chemical concepts. Another instance where students involved in the study share common perception is mathematical knowledge which is a pre-requisite to understanding the mole concept.…”

“…Though students are interested in learning the mole concept, their interest could in some ways be affected by the selection and usage of inappropriate instructional strategies. Chemistry teachers are, therefore, encouraged to continually select and use the most appropriate instructional strategies, such as participatory teaching and learning approach (Adu-Gyamfi et al, 2020), computer simulation games (Bilek et al, 2018), conceptual change approach (Calik et al, 2009;Priede & Krumina, 2012), learning cycle (7E model) (Santi & Atun, 2020), and cooperative learning approach (Avci et al, 2019) for teaching the mole concept to attract students to it. The nature of the mole concept, which entails abstractness and mathematics, could influence the concept by resulting in the difficulties encountered in the teaching and learning (Chong et al, 2019;Mweshi et al, 2019) and these, students in this research appreciate.…”

The effect of different sharing patterns through multiple electronic approaches on developing information awareness and social interaction skills among students of the University of Hail

“…The methods of participation in the current research are intended to learn through the three modes of participation (synergistic-parallel-serial) through Web 2.0 tools (Twitter-Video Sharing-Wiki), to develop information awareness and social communication skills. Adu-Gyamfi et al (2020), Yueh et al (2015) indicated that sharing learners with each other reduces isolation, helps develop thinking skills, and contributes to forming positive reactions in them. With different styles of participation, individual learner and learners through e-learning platforms as they are content with watching only, which may affect their learning outcomes, and those studies also showed that sharing between teacher and learner without teacher guidance through participatory web editors contributes to a decrease in interaction between learners, and the following format explains the differences between the roles of the teacher and the learner in the traditional learning environment and the participatory learning environment.…”

“…There are many studies and research that have dealt with these different types of electronic participation in learning environments via the web and their effectiveness, such as Saborit et al (2016) concluded that the effectiveness of patterns of participation in electronic learning environments is measured by the amount of collective help and support that they provide to the learner in the educational environment based on the web, as these patterns work on the growth of student competencies through an active and rich participatory learning environment and the study of Adu-Gyamfi et al (2020), which indicated the importance of participatory learning in sharing and building knowledge among students using modern technological means.…”

Factors Affecting Secondary School Students’ Academic Achievements in Chemistry

“…On the other hand, one of the roles of instruction to any nation is to produce trained persons with competencies in different fields, and not to consider chemistry to be difficult to teach and study (Dwyer & Childs, 2017;and Mahdi, 2014). The problem of misconceptions and low achievements in Chemistry, have also been highlighted by several researchers, such as Adu-Gyamfi et al (2020), Ajayi (2017a), Ejidike and Oyelana (2015), Graulich (2015), Hanson (2017), Luoga et al (2013), Mari and Gumel (2014), and O 'Dwyer and Childs (2015).…”