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Asia-Pacific Forum on Science Learning and Teaching, Volume 19, Issue 2, Article 3 (Dec., 2018) |
Learning of chemistry concepts predominately have been linked with memorization of the concepts rather than understanding the principles and application of the concepts. This mainly happens due to the use of rhetoric teacher-centered pedagogical strategy that ultimately leads to memorizing rather than understanding. This study suggested CBGCEs as an alternative to the existing pedagogy as in the past it was said that relating to a context allows better understanding (Serry, 2015). In this study, similar findings were found in terms of students' understanding of the effects of concentration and catalyst on the rate of reaction. The study is informative to various stakeholders including the curriculum planners, curriculum writers, researchers and teachers as it introduces an effective alternative way of teaching chemistry. However, the study exhibits several limitations. CBGCEs were identified effective solely based on comparing the findings obtained from two groups from the same school. Even though this method is suggested appropriate (Shadish, Cook, and Campbell, 2002), the findings are not advisable to be generalized. To improve the generalization of the findings, it is suggested for the study to be repeated with different schools and classes and also involving students with various abilities. Further, in the context where this study was performed, the experimental and control groups have to be from the same school. This is to ensure that both groups were taught by the same teacher so that the teacher effect is nested. However, having the groups in the same environment might leads to diffusion of the treatment. In this study, the diffusions effects were controlled by placing the students in different locations and also the activities were performed at two different times for both groups.
