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Temperature and heat are difficult concepts for children to grasp due to their abstractness. An image-to-writing approach, guided by the visualisation practices of scientists, was designed to engage elementary students with constructing images to represent their ideas about phenomena and translating these images into text using scientific terminologies. Taking a quasi-experimental approach, the experimental group students received inquiry-based instruction based on the image-to-writing approach, while the control group students received a mix of direct instruction and inquiry activities without explicit focus on multimodal representations. An instrument consisting of four free response questions was developed and administered to 129 primary 4 students (aged 9–10) before (pre-test) and after (post-test) instruction to determine their conceptual understanding and representational competences. ANCOVA showed that students in the experimental group perform significantly better than those in the control group in their conceptual understanding. Further analysis revealed that a larger percentage of students in the experimental group demonstrated higher levels of conceptual understanding after instruction, compared to the control group for more complex phenomena, even though both groups showed similar levels of representational competences. The findings suggest that an image-to-writing approach can help students develop deeper conceptual understanding as well as use representations to demonstrate their conceptual understanding. The use of images could have helped students in their thinking and learning of complex phenomena, which allowed them to better convey their understanding of the concepts.

The internet is prevalent in society today, and user-friendly web-based productivity tools are readily available for developing diagnostic instruments. This study sought to determine the affordances of a web-based diagnostic instrument on ionisation energy (wIEDI) based on the pen-and-paper version, the Ionisation Energy Diagnostic Instrument (IEDI) that was previously developed and reported on. The Google Forms platform was used to develop the wIEDI and it allowed a degree of personalisation such that specific second-tier options are offered in response to the student's choice of answer in the first tier. Students could choose one or more reasons in the second tier or supply their own reasons, and they were asked to indicate their confidence in their choice of answer–reason combinations. The wIEDI was administered to 274 A-level students (257 Grade 11 and 17 Grade 12), and answer–reason combinations indicating alternative conceptions were highlighted only if 5% or more students expressed confidence in them in the third-tier confidence measure. The results showed that all the possible alternative conceptions of ionisation energy reported in the previous study were also identified in the present study. Additional alternative conceptions were indicated as new reasons had to be developed for many items in the wIEDI to ensure that there were sufficient reasons for each first-tier response, and students were allowed to choose more than one reason for their answer. The wIEDI better facilitated responses reflecting the consistency of the use of specific ideas in student thinking and provided direct evidence of students’ possible manifold conceptions and thinking within each question as well as across a range of questions. It also allowed easy collation of the comments students typed in response to the ‘Others’ and ‘I do not know the answer’ options. Thus, the study makes a case for researchers and teachers using such technology in the diagnostic assessment of students.

Science education research involves systematic inquiry into the teaching and learning of science. Research can be utilised to solve problems in the science classroom, for example, educational researchers seek to determine how to help students learn difficult concepts or how to facilitate students’ engagement in scientific inquiry and argumentation. Research findings can be disseminated through the publication of books, journal papers and articles for teachers, as well as presentations during conferences, workshops and formal courses. Teachers who have read the publications or attended the presentations may gain new perspectives and understandings, and these may encourage the teachers to examine and rejuvenate their practices. When teachers engage in research themselves or collaborate with educational researchers, they may also gain new experiences and insights which can impact on how they think and act. Thus, the impact of research on science classroom practices can be considerable, especially in Singapore, where there is close collaboration in the research-practice enterprise between the researchers from the National Institute of Education, schools and the Ministry of Education.

Research is a systematic inquiry into phenomena to understand the phenomena and/or to solve problems related to the phenomena. Though tentative and not always correct, research knowledge can provide different perspectives of practices in school and balance the use of practitioner knowledge in classroom teaching, which is also not always correct. Several studies have indicated that teachers may not be able to find research that is relevant and practical for their immediate needs, and even if the relevant research reports can be found, teachers may have difficulty in reading, understanding and acting on them; the studies suggest that intermediaries work with teachers to address these issues. This chapter proposes guidelines to help intermediaries identify relevant studies that can help teachers address their areas of concern, interpret these studies, present them, explain how the findings and suggestions from the studies can be implemented in their classrooms and work with them in the implementation. The guidelines were developed based on a case study in which an intermediary (the author) facilitated the use of educational research by three chemistry teachers in their practice by supporting the teachers in the development of research-informed instructional material and strategies to address their students’ difficulties in planning chemistry experiments.

Chemistry is a difficult subject to learn, in part because explanations for chemical phenomena are abstract, involving the interactions of invisible particles. Thus, students may construct ideas and explanations of chemical phenomena that are inconsistent with those accepted by the scientific community; these ideas may be resistant to change as they are based on the ways students perceive how and why things behave. It is important to identify students’ alternative conceptions so that measures can be taken to help students construct more scientifically acceptable concepts. Studies have been conducted to determine students’ alternative conceptions over a wide range of topics in chemistry, including ionisation energy. In a previous study, a pen-and-paper two-tier multiple choice diagnostic instrument on ionisation energy was developed for use in the classroom. This chapter describes the further development and use of a web-based version of the instrument to determine students’ thinking in the topic. Such web-based instruments are easily made available on the internet, readily administered to students and the results can be automatically collated, saving the time and effort of researchers as well as teachers. This is one way in which the use of educational research by teachers can be facilitated, impacting practice in the classroom.

One of the aims of science education research is to produce insights into improving the teaching and learning of science in schools. Unfortunately, many teachers continue to teach in the classroom as if no research has been done into the teaching and learning of their subjects. This can be because teachers are generally unaware of relevant work available and that few researchers are willing to translate research findings into resources which teachers can easily understand and use in class. A survey study which examined the impact of educational research on Singapore middle and high school chemistry teachers’ instructional and curricular practices was conducted using semi-structured interviews from 2011 to 2013. This paper reports the findings of the study related to the factors which facilitated or impeded changes in the teachers’ existing practices; the findings revealed that these were related to students, teachers, school, the Ministry of Education, time, educational research and teacher professional development. The paper also discusses the sources of information that the teachers used to guide them in making changes or adopting new practices; these included colleagues, teacher educators, electronic resources, conferences and professional development courses and educational research. This study can inform researchers of the issues that are important to teachers and ways of working with them to address these issues.

Teaching has become increasingly complex and multifaceted against the backdrop of changing demands in society. More than ever, learning and teaching has to take into consideration Schwab’s (The School Review 78(1):1–23, 1969) four “commonplaces of education” where the teacher, learners, subject matter and milieu (or context) are in dynamic and constant interaction. A teacher is not simply a conduit to deliver a planned teacher-proof curriculum but plays an inextricable part during curriculum development, implementation and evaluation.

This paper reports the findings of a study which investigated the role that educational research plays in influencing 29 Singapore pre-university (Grades 11 and 12) and secondary (Grades 9 and 10) chemistry teachers' curricular and instructional decision making process. Twenty-five teachers were interviewed while four preferred to submit written responses to questions in the interview protocol. The findings indicated that factors which had an impact on the use of educational research by the teachers included those related to the teacher, school, research literature and time. This study can inform the chemistry educational research community of the issues that are important to teachers in their teaching of chemistry and use of educational research, and ways of working with teachers to address these issues.

In this paper, we define flip teaching as a curricular platform that uses various strategies, tools, and pedagogies to engage learners in self-directed learning outside the classroom before face-to-face meetings with teachers in the classroom. With this understanding, we adopted flip teaching in the design and enactment of one Year 1 and one Year 2 undergraduate chemistry laboratory session at a higher education institution. The undergraduates viewed videos demonstrating the practical procedures and answered pre-laboratory questions posted on the institution's mobile device application before the laboratory lessons. Analyses of the lesson videos, interviews with the undergraduates and instructors, and undergraduate artefacts showed that the undergraduates had developed a better understanding of the theory undergirding the procedures before they performed the practical, and were able to decipher the complex practical procedures. They also experienced less anxiety about the complex practical steps and setup, and subsequently, improved work efficiency. The findings of this study have implications for chemistry educators looking for ways to improve on the design and enactment of the laboratory curriculum to enhance the undergraduates' self-directed learning.

Singapore is a small country with a total land area of about 716 km2 and a population of about 5.4 million, comprising 3.8 million citizens and permanent residents and 1.5 million foreigners. Apart from her deepwater harbour, the only other natural resource that Singapore has is her people, so the education and development of the people is crucial to the prosperity and progress of the country. Thus the education system in Singapore aims to help the young to discover and develop their talents and potential to the fullest, and cultivate a passion for lifelong learning. To achieve these aims, the educational system is becoming more flexible, diverse and broad-based, and these characteristics are also reflected in the teaching and learning of science in Singapore. The science curriculum, from the primary to high school levels, is centred on science as inquiry and focusses on the knowledge, skills and processes, ethics and attitudes required in the practice of science, as well as the understanding of the impact of science in daily life, society and environment. It seeks to cultivate the scientific literacy, competencies and values necessary for the young to take on challenges, present and future, and thrive in a fast changing world.

In chemical kinetics, in addition to the concepts related to kinetics, stoichiometry, chemical equilibrium and the characteristics of the reactants are often involved when comparing the rates of different reactions, making such comparisons very challenging for students at all levels, as well as for pre-service science teachers. Consequently, four multiple-choice items were developed to determine the understanding of 217 pre-service science teachers of the kinetics of acid reactions that are taught at the Grade 9 to 10 levels in Singapore schools. Each of four items compared two different acid reactions under similar conditions, and respondents were required to select the best graphical representation for the two reactions. Respondents were also required to provide reasons to explain their particular selection for each item. In addition, one item on the dissociation of sulfuric acid and two items involving excess/limiting reagents were also included to provide additional data on the pre-service teachers’ understanding of these concepts that were assessed in the four items on kinetics of acid reactions. The results showed that the pre-service teachers had difficulties in explaining the properties of different common acids, including the dissociation of the acids and how these affect the rates of the different acid reactions. This study highlights the importance of determining pre-service teachers’ understanding of the concepts that they will be teaching with a view to addressing areas of difficulty, as these will have consequences on their future students’ learning.

Previous studies have indicated that A‐level students in the UK and Singapore have difficulty learning the topic of ionisation energy. A two‐tier multiple‐choice instrument developed in Singapore in an earlier study, the Ionisation Energy Diagnostic Instrument, was administered to A‐level students in the UK, advanced placement high school students in the USA, and first‐year university students in China, New Zealand, and Spain to determine whether the students from different countries and educational systems had similar conceptions and difficulties as the students in Singapore with the concepts assessed in the instrument. The results showed that, in general, the students in all six samples had similar alternative conceptions, which were grouped under the categories of octet rule framework, stable fully‐filled and half‐filled subshell conceptions, and conservation of force thinking. The students also resorted to relation‐based thinking when answering items involving the trend of ionisation energies across P...

This paper describes findings from a study to explore Singapore A-level (Grades 11 and 12, 16–19 yr old) students' understanding of ionisation energy, an abstract and complex topic that is featured in school chemistry courses. Previous research had reported that students in the United Kingdom commonly use alternative notions based on the perceived stability of full shells and the ‘sharing out’ of nuclear force, but that such ideas tend to be applied inconsistently. This paper describes results from the administration of a two-tier multiple-choice instrument, the ionisation energy diagnostic instrument, to find (1) whether A-level students in Singapore have similar ways of thinking about the factors influencing ionisation energy as reported from their A-level counterparts in the UK; and (2) how Singapore A-level students explain the trend of ionisation energy across different elements in Period 3. The results indicate that students in Singapore use the same alternative ideas as those in the UK, and also a related alternative notion. The study also demonstrates considerable inconsistency in the way students responded to related items. The potential significance of the findings to student understanding of complex topics across the sciences is considered.

This paper reports the findings of a national survey on the use of dataloggers in secondary schools (grades 7–10) and junior colleges (grades 11–12). In particular, it explores the types of learning activities that teachers conduct using dataloggers, the support structures they deem necessary and the difficulties they face. Of the 593 respondents, 394 (67%) had used dataloggers in the last two years, mainly in demonstrations and set experiments. The three most important support structures included: supportive laboratory technicians, training on the use of dataloggers, and instructional material on how to use dataloggers within the curriculum. The difficulties which deterred the respondents from using dataloggers included the logistics and time taken to set up datalogging equipment and activities, insufficient numbers of computer workstations, and the mishandling of equipment by students, leading to equipment malfunctions. To expand the use of dataloggers in school, the respondents suggest that dedicated l...

Graraaduate teachers teaching secondary chemistry in Grades 9 and 10 in Singapore are required to prepare their students for a one‐off practical examination that forms part of the General Certificate of Education Ordinary Level (O‐level) chemistry examinations taken at the end of Grade 10. A qualitative analysis experiment is usually part of the practical examination. Previous research has shown that secondary students have difficulty in explaining the reactions and procedures involved in qualitative analysis (Tan, Goh, Chia, & Treagust, 2001, 2002), and a possible reason for this situation is that their teachers may also not have adequate understanding of the reactions and procedures involved, and hence, are unable to teach for understanding. A diagnostic test on O‐level qualitative analysis was administered to a total 270 pre‐service chemistry teachers from 1999 to 2003, and it was found that they had problems explaining the ion‐exchange reactions that resulted in the formation of precipitates...

The topic of ionisation energy is important as the concepts involved provide the foundation for the understanding of atomic structure, periodic trends and energetics of reactions. Previous research has shown that A-level (high school) students in the United Kingdom had difficulty understanding the concepts involved in ionisation energy. This paper describes the development and administration of a two-tier, multiple-choice instrument on ionisation energy, the Ionisation Energy Diagnostic Instrument, to determine if A-level students (Grade 11 and 12, 17 to 18 years old) in Singapore have similar alternative conceptions to those of their counterparts in the United Kingdom, as well as explore their understanding of the trend of ionisation energies across Period 3. The items in such instruments are specifically designed to identify alternative conceptions and misunderstandings in a limited and clearly defined content area. The results showed that students in Singapore applied the same octet rule framework and conservation of force thinking to explain the factors influencing ionisation energy as the students in the United Kingdom. In addition to the above alternative frameworks, many students in Singapore also resorted to relation-based reasoning to explain the trend of ionisation energies across Period 3 elements. [Chem. Educ. Res. Pract., 2005, 6 (4), 180-197]

This article describes the development and application of a two-tier multiple choice diagnostic instrument to assess high school students' understanding of inorganic chemistry qualitative analysis. The development of the diagnostic instrument was guided by the framework outlined by Treagust. The instrument was administered to 915 Grade 10 students (15 to 17 years old) from 11 schools after they had learned the theory involved in qualitative analysis and after a series of qualitative analysis practical sessions. The Cronbach alpha reliability of the instrument was .68, the facility indices ranged from .17 to .48, and the discrimination indices ranged from .20 to .53. The study showed that the Grade 10 students had difficulty understanding the reactions involved in the identification of cations and anions, for example, double decomposition reactions, the formation and reaction of complex salts, and thermal decomposition. The findings of the study and literature on practical work were used to develop a qualitative analysis teaching package. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals Inc. J Res Sci Teach 39: 283–301, 2002

Many teachers find that their students do not seem to be able to link what they do in the laboratory with what they learn in the classroom. As such, students are unaware of what to think about and take note of during experiments; the same situation exists in Singapore. For example, research using a two-tier multiple choice diagnostic instrument has shown that Singapore secondary and junior college students, as well as graduate pre-service teachers, have difficulty understanding the procedures and reactions involved in basic inorganic chemistry qualitative analysis practical work. To address these difficulties and make learning during practical work more meaningful, an inquiry-based approach to learning basic qualitative analysis was developed to engage students in learning the key procedures, reactions and concepts involved through empirical investigations. The inquiry-based instructional package was implemented in one school and the same diagnostic instrument was administered to the students involved 4 months later. The results indicated that the secondary 4 students who had undergone the instructional package obtained better scores than the secondary 4 students involved in the first study and had lower levels of alternative conceptions. This indicated the feasibility of using inquiry to facilitate students’ understanding and application of science concepts during practical work.

Grade 10 students in Singapore find qualitative analysis one of the more difficult topics in their external examinations. Fifty-one grade 10 students (15-17 years old) from three schools were interviewed to investigate their perceptions about learning qualitative analysis and the aspects of qualitative analysis they found difficult. The results showed that students found qualitative analysis tedious, difficult to understand and found the practical sessions unrelated to what they learned in class. They also believed that learning qualitative analysis required a great amount of memory work. It is proposed that their difficulties may arise from not knowing explicitly what is required in qualitative analysis, the content of qualitative analysis, the lack of motivation to understand qualitative analysis, cognitive overloading, and the lack of mastery of the required process skills.

A conceptual change perspective is employed to discuss the reasons why science education research seems to have limited impact on practice and policy making, and how researchers can address the issues and challenges of making research more accessible, intelligible, plausible and fruitful to teachers and policy makers who are dissatisfied with the their current science education situations.

Typical textbooks in chemistry present the field as a fait accompli represented by a body of “proven” facts. In the teaching and learning of chemistry, students have little, if any, agency to engage in scientific inquiry and to construct their personal understanding of the field. An emphasis on predetermined “knowledge” and the execution of laboratory experiments designed mainly to confirm predetermined “findings” can lead students to a grave misunderstanding of the nature of science. In this chapter, we argue that the learning of chemistry must be engaged in performatively if it is to be authentic. Using the multiplayer chemistry game “Legends of Alkhimia” as a context, we articulate the epistemological and pedagogical bases for the design of a game-based learning curriculum to help students imbibe the thinking, values, and dispositions of professional chemists. Drawing on Bourdieu’s construct of habitus, we seek to foster students’ capacity for practical reason as they become themselves via engagement in the scientific and inquiry-oriented practice of doing chemistry, rather than just learning about it. We explain how our design-for-learning seeks to develop epistemic reflexivity and professional identity, in relation to professional chemists, through performance, play, and dialog.

This chapter aims to take a multimodal perspective to understand how a pair of first year science undergraduate students solves an organic chemistry tutorial problem on addition reaction. Using interaction analysis to study the video recording of the students’ interactions during the problem-solving session, students were found to rely on their gestures, speech, and inscriptions to work out a solution that was contingent on previously revealed information. Students’ interactions also demonstrated their limited understanding of addition reaction mechanism as they could only work out the structure of the intermediate product but were unable to describe the reaction pathway. These findings suggest a need for word-centered evaluative activities to be complemented with alternative assessment methods to provide students with opportunities to engage with a variety of representational resources so as to enhance their ability to construct and communicate scientific knowledge.

International audience; The present study contributes to the constructivist research programme (RP) into learning science by comparing patterns in responses from two groups of learners - senior high schools students and pre-service teachers - in the same educational context (Singapore), to a diagnostic instrument relating to the topic of ionisation energies. This topic is currently included in the curriculum for 16-19 year-old students studying chemistry in Singapore (and elsewhere). The comparison shows that although (a) graduate pre-service teachers offered some types of incorrect responses less frequently than high school students; (b) they retained high levels of alternative conceptions commonly found among high school students; and - of particular note - (c) certain alternative conceptions were found to be more common among the graduates. This suggest the intuitive appeal of certain alternative conceptions is such that they can readily be reproduced down 'generations' of learners. The findings are explored in terms of a range of conceptual resources that have been developed within the constructivist RP. The analysis suggests that the curriculum sets out inappropriate target knowledge for senior high school students, given the nature of the subject matter and the prior learning of the students. It is also suggested that it may be fruitful to consider conceptual learning in terms analogous to the RP found in science, and that from this perspective certain insidious alternative conceptions can be understood as derived from commitments that are taken-for-granted and protected from explicit challenge by a protective belt of refutable auxiliary conceptions.

This chapter considers the notion of educational research quality and evaluation from an international perspective. We consider how and why these approaches differ from the US-based Gold Standard design (i.e., research based on randomized controlled trials [RCTs] mimicking third-stage drug trials; see Shelley, Yore, & Hand, Chap. 1). The Gold Standard is based on the assumption that RCT design alone, regardless of other factors, provides the desired quality. We suggest here that the notion of quality in research and the mechanisms used to evaluate research quality are highly dependent on the overarching aim of education. To illustrate, the governments of many countries see education, especially science education, as a key component in economic progress and as a means of delivering on social services (Coll & Taylor, 2008). Hence, there are a number of reasons why we need to evaluate research quality in science education. We need to provide evidence that our science education regimes (and vocational education and training) do in fact produce outputs in terms of qualified people needed to

Basic Grade 10 inorganic qualitative analysis in Singapore requires students to carry out procedures using chemicals, apparatus and appropriate techniques for which they record their observations and make inferences based on the observations. As students are assessed mainly on their written observations, they focus on getting the correct results and writing ‘standard’ observations. Thus, many students merely follow instructions given in the worksheet and seldom think about or understand the reactions involved especially in terms of what is occurring in these reactions at the sub-microscopic level. To respond to this situation, the authors first designed the Qualitative Analysis Diagnostic Instrument to identify students’ understanding of the reactions involved in qualitative analysis. Secondly, the authors developed the Qualitative Analysis Teaching Package to help students learn qualitative analysis by facilitating their understanding of the sub-microscopic and symbolic level explanations of the macroscopic level experiences of the procedures and reactions involved, as well as the manipulative, observational and inferential skills and thinking processes required. The diagnostic instrument and teaching package are especially important with the imminent change from the current one-off national practical examination to school-based assessment in 2008 with the focus on manipulative, observational, analytical and planning skills.

This chapter discusses the potential uses of Web 2.0 technologies in enhancing scientific literacy and the learning of science in the K-12 sector. Web 2.0 offers services and products that could facilitate the learning of science by harnessing the collective intelligence of individuals connected to the Web through social networking. A framework based on social constructivism for thinking about the potential uses of Web 2.0 technologies in the learning of science is proposed. The use of Web 2.0 technologies could bring about a fundamental shift in pedagogy and assessment towards a participatory learning approach that promotes a deeper and more engaged understanding of science.

The results from a study to explore pre-service teachers' understanding of ionization energy, a topic that features in A-level (grade 11 and 12) chemistry courses. in Singapore , is described. A previous study using a two-tier multiple choice diagnostic test has shown that Singapore A-level students have considerable difficulty understanding the topic of ionization energy. The same diagnostic test was administered to a total of 237 pre-service chemistry teachers from 2003 to 2006, and it was found that the pre-service teachers had similar difficulties and alternative conceptions as the A-level students. Teachers need to be aware of their students' as well as their own alternative conceptions so that they can address their subject matter knowledge and be better able to support their students' learning of difficult topics in chemistry.

Most students' introduction to qualitative analysis in the United States occurs in general chemistry courses at college or university; in Australian universities this occurs as part of analytical chemistry courses for chemistry majors. In Singapore, however, students are first introduced to qualitative analysis in grade 10 chemistry (when they are 16 years old), even though the topic is generally considered to be conceptually difficult to understand and there is inadequate time for comprehensive experimental work. Using extensive interviews, this study was designed to identify the sources of these difficulties. Students had difficulty understanding the formation of precipitates and complex salts, and the reactions of acids in qualitative analysis experiments. Many students thought that the formation of precipitates in reactions involving exchange of ions was because of more-reactive ions displacing less-reactive ones, and that ammonia was included in the reactivity series. The students also regarded the f...