Effects of using particulate model as a teaching strategy on the learning of writing chemical formulae and balancing chemical equations

Abstract

This study investigates the effects of an innovative teaching strategy, namely Particle Teaching Strategy, which incorporates both the microscopic and symbolic levels of chemistry during instruction, on the students’ chemical knowledge, conceptual understanding and problem solving performance. The topic for the study is writing chemical formulae and balancing chemical equations. A total of 74 secondary three students from two intact classes in a government boys’ school were involved in this study. One of the two classes was taught using the Particle Teaching Strategy (treatment group), while the other class was taught using the traditional teaching method (control group). Three test instruments, namely Chemical Knowledge Test, Conceptual Understanding Test and Problem Solving Test, were designed and administered as pre-tests to the students before teaching the topic and as post-tests after the students were taught the topic. The results of the study and its implications for teaching chemistry will be discussed.