Applying Modeling Instruction to High School Chemistry To Improve Students' Conceptual Understanding

摘要

With the release of the Next Generation Science Standards, high school chemistry teachers are now pondering the implications of their recommendations for their teaching. They may agree that traditional instruction, as the Framework points out, "emphasizes discrete facts with a focus on breadth over depth, and does not provide students with engaging opportunities to experience how science is actually done." Teachers must also wonder what a course that emphasizes models and modeling would look like. How could they modify their current classroom practice to make it more model-centered while still addressing the content they feel they must teach? This article describes the extension of Modeling Instruction, a highly successful reformed approach to teaching high school physics, to the subject of chemistry. It outlines how this approach differs from traditional instruction, including the unique organization of the content, the emphasis on conceptual understanding, how the laboratory can be used to elicit models rather than validate lecture, and the development of a classroom culture designed to encourage students to make and evaluate models.