Abstract:

This paper describes the approaches used in designing a teaching sequence about aspects of electrochemistry (electrolytic cell) for 16-year-old Malaysian upper secondary school students. The design is based on the Leeds Model Framework which draws upon theoretical insights into perspectives on learning and empirical studies to improve the teaching of electrochemistry. There are three design tools that are used to guide the design processes at a fine grain size which are: (1) the learning demands, (2) the communicative approach, and (3) the design brief. The learning demands are referred to as the differences between everyday social language and scientific language in terms of both content and the nature of the knowledge used to represent the same phenomena. The communicative approach as a design tool focuses on classroom discourse, especially on how the teacher interacts with students when new ideas are introduced on the social plane of the classroom. A design brief outlines the issues that need to be addressed in the teaching sequence which makes explicit the content-specific learning aims for the teaching. These design tools present the fundamental guidelines that could be utilized in designing a teaching sequence for the purpose to improve students’ conceptual understanding in any content-specific learning.

Keywords:

Design Tools, Content-Specific Learning, Teaching of Electrochemistry.