The relationship between teaching and learning of chemical bonding and strcutures

Abstract

This study is an evaluation of students’ learning of chemical bonding based on a curricular model proposed by Taber (2001). The model, which took electrostatics as an overarching framework, was adopted in the teaching of a Grade 10 chemistry class in Hong Kong. The teaching lasted for eight weeks. Three students from the class who represented high, medium and low achievement in the chemistry subject were interviewed four times over the period. Data analysis revealed that they did not have apparent difficulties in understanding and applying Coulombic electrostatics in simple contexts. Nevertheless, the application of Coulombic electrostatics to the learning of covalent bonding was not always successful. The reasons were complicated – among them was the need to fulfil the requirement of the official curriculum and public examination in which students would have to draw electron diagrams based on the octet rule. Students seemed to have discarded electrostatic forces and were in favor of the octet rule when making sense of covalent bonding. Implications for the teaching and learning of chemical bonding will be discussed.