Published Article / Past imbalances in the South African education system continue to perpetuate in poorly resourced schools and inadequately skilled teachers, resulting in under-prepared university students. At Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) a computer-based intervention was developed to address two of the conceptual difficulties identified in prospective first-year Chemistry students. After implementation of the intervention, average improvements of 13.6% and 6.4% were obtained for the concepts of conservation of matter and physical and chemical change respectively. The students' attitudes towards computer-aided study, assessed using a semi-structured questionnaire, were found to be extremely positive despite limited computer access.

<p> This project presents the development of a lesson design format on "Introduction to Organic Chemistry" for CBI - computer-based instruction. The design is to be used with the authoring program, Private School, an intelligent delivery system database.</p> <p> The community college system has experienced many changes over the past few years. The changing political, economic and social climate has forced the community college system to re-examine how courses are delivered. Along with this, employers are demanding computer-literate students. There is a need for teachers to look at alternative delivery methods such as CBI. The addition of Computer-based learning to the chemistry curriculum at the community college is designed to do just that. CBI enhances student learning by providing an alternative delivery methodology for studying chemistry concepts, which can be abstract and difficult to comprehend.</p> <p> Computer-based learning has been slow to be implemented at community colleges. This lesson, designed for the computer courseware database, Private School, offers community college teachers a framework to use for their own curriculum initiatives, thus allaying some of the fears and anxieties associated with computer technology.</p> <p> Throughout the development of the computer-based instructional package, teacher involvement is critical. The success of such a teaching medium depends upon the commitment of the teacher/designer. The monitoring of student learning and of student progress must be built into the design.</p> <p> The instructional development model of Kemp, Morrison and Ross was used as the foundation for making decisions about instructional objectives, content, learning activities, resources, learner characteristics and student evaluation. The curriculum was then used as an example for the User Guide to help teachers with the development of their own CBI. This project describes 5 phases for the implementation of CBI into community colleges: teacher familiarization, instructional design, data entry, student familiarization and student evaluation and progress.</p> <p> CBI can provide resources for learning which are effective, richer, available for longer hours, and open to a wider range of college students. CBI also provides students with greater control over timing and pace, and there is more likelihood of resources suiting their style and stage of each student's learning.</p> / Thesis / Master of Science (Teaching)

Yes / Employers are increasingly requiring a range of “soft” skills from chemistry graduates, including the ability to search for and critically evaluate information. This paper discusses the issues around encouraging chemistry students to engage with information skills and suggests curricular changes which may help to “drip-feed” information skills into degree programmes.

This thesis reports a series of studies into textbook authors', teachers' and students' use of analogies to improve students' understanding of abstract chemistry concepts. The five research problems considered: (a) the nature and extent of analogy use in textbooks; (b) the views of textbook authors and editors concerning analogies; (c) how, when, and why analogies were used by experienced chemistry teachers; (d) the development of an instrument to determine chemistry students' understanding of analogies; and (e) how chemistry students use the analogies presented as part of their chemistry instruction.Study One reports the findings of an investigation of ten chemistry textbooks used by Australian students for the nature and extent of analogy inclusion. The study found that, while used sparingly, analogies were employed more frequently in the beginning of textbooks and that the analogies used concrete analog domains to describe abstract target concepts. There was considerable use of pictorial-verbal analogies although simple analogies comprised a substantial proportion and stated limitations or warnings were infrequently employed.Study Two involved interviews with the authors of eight of the above mentioned textbooks to determine authors' views on analogies and their use in textbooks and teaching. The study identified a relationship between how frequently analogies were used by the author and what he or she considered to be the characteristics of a good chemistry teacher. Each author had a good understanding of the nature of analogy and each sought a flexible environment for its use - most arguing that analogies are better used by teachers than printed in textbooks. They appeared to favour analogies embedded in text or placed in margins rather than as post-synthesisers or advance organisers.Study Three reports an investigation into six chemistry teachers' use of ++ / analogies in Western Australia and England. This study found that the teachers drew upon their experiences and professional reading as sources of the analogies that tended to be spontaneously used when they felt their students had not understood an explanation. The analogies tended to map functional attributes of abstract target concepts with some teachers using the blackboard to illustrate pictorial analogies and some including statements of limitations.Study Four describes the development of analogy maps - instruments used to determine the effectiveness with which students map given analogies. The iterative development process engaged classroom-based research methods to develop an instrument of value both for teaching and for school-related research. A rating system enables researchers to compare students' effectiveness at mapping analogies with variables such as analogy type.Studies Five and Six describe how a combination of interviews and analogy map surveys were used to investigate how students used analogies in chemistry. The study found that students felt more confident with pictorial-verbal analogies although they were not necessarily able to map these analogies better than verbal (only) analogies. Also, student mapping confidence appeared not to depend upon the level of enrichment supplied and added enrichment did not necessarily aid mapping performance. Further, the analogy maps were useful as a means to identify alternative conceptions and there was little evidence that the analogy maps contributed to the formation of alternative conceptions in the learners.The final chapter draws together and discusses the assertions made in all of the previous studies before considering the contribution of the thesis to theory building. The implications of the research are discussed and suggestions made for future research on analogies in chemistry education. The chapter ++ / concludes by outlining examples of how and where the findings of this research have begun to be disseminated.