20 January 2012
A new resource for chemistry teachers has been produced by Professor Sibel Erduran, Graduate School of Education and Dr Aybuke Pabuccu a Visiting Fellow from Abant Izzet Baysal University, Turkey.
The booklet, Bonding chemistry and argument: Teaching and learning argumentation through chemistry stories, contains activities for use by teachers and pupils in secondary school chemistry lessons. A key feature of the activities is the immersion of chemistry problems in stories so as to engage and motivate pupils through interesting contexts.
Through stories, students are facilitated in their construction of chemical arguments. A unique aspect of the resource is the incorporation of argumentation frameworks in organic chemistry, a topic that is reputed to be primarily based on rote memorisation in traditional schooling.
Science teachers in Oslo working a Norwegian translation of the activities
The publication of the booklet was made possible by contributions from the University of Bristol’s Institute of Advanced Studies, The Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA) and Yükseköğretim Kurulu, The Council of Higher Education, Turkey. A related Turkish version of the resource is scheduled to be published by the Turkish Chemical Society later in 2012.
Professor Erduran and Dr Pabuccu
Related links
Download the publication Bonding chemistry and argument: Teaching and learning argumentation through chemistry stories (PDF, 1.2 Mb)
Visit Professor Sibel Erduran’s staff page
Visit Dr Aybuke Pabuccu’s staff page
