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Asia-Pacific Forum
on Science Learning and Teaching, Volume 12, Issue 2, Article 8 (Dec., 2011) |
The main purpose of this study was not to evaluate the revised secondary chemistry program directly but to evaluate students who are educated in high school with the revised chemistry program. In spite of that this study gives opportunity to deduce some implications for the evaluation of the revised chemistry curriculum. Firstly, in spite of the fact that the chemistry curriculum was revised based on constructivist approach, this was not effective on the elimination of students’ alternative conceptions. For instance, results indicated that there is no statistically significant effect of chemistry course grades of students on their comprehension of concepts which is an evidence to conclude as; even students with higher chemistry grades do not score better on the CCI. In other words, chemistry instruction does not promote students’ conceptual understanding. This may result from different factors such as inadequate implementation of the curriculum in chemistry classes, students’ alternative conceptions not being considered in the curriculum, and etc.
For the effective implementation of the curriculum, chemistry teachers should be trained about constructivist teaching strategies and the applications of them. Moreover, to place science program on sound bases in Turkey, chemistry teachers and program developers should take students’ alternative conceptions into account while designing or suggesting chemistry instruction.
