Download or read book Restructuring the Sequence of Chemical Concepts in the Curriculum written by John C. Scali and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This action-research study explored the effect of restructuring the order of concept introduction on students' acquisition and retention of chemistry concepts and students' attitudes toward chemistry and interest in science in general. Students in two Honors year-long chemistry courses, taught by the same instructor, participated in this study. One section was taught using a traditional curriculum where concepts start with the submicroscopic and proceed to macroscopic, and a restructured curriculum in which concepts were developed starting from the macroscopic level to the submicroscopic level. The content in both sections targeted specific district-determined learning objectives. The instructor used a student-centered instructional approach in both classes. Unit tests were designed to enable comparison of performance on concepts tied to the learning objectives throughout the year across the two classes. Students in both classes took the same final examination. Student-generated questions were collected to ascertain student understanding of learning objectives at the point of content introduction. Students in both classes also took the Attitudes Toward Chemistry Survey at the beginning and the end of the school year. Analysis of unit test items and the final examination show a significant difference in favor of students in the restructured section specifically on test items that targeted the upper levels of Bloom's taxonomy, showing a positive effect on content acquisition, understanding and retention. Analysis of surveys reflects no significant difference between the sections in terms of attitudes toward chemistry or interest in science. Findings from this study demonstrate that a curriculum intervention focused on changing the sequence of concept introduction can lead to more meaningful learning of chemistry concepts. Implications include reorganization of content in all levels of chemistry. Recommendations for future research include studying the long-term effects of restructuring and the effects on various demographics of students.