Abstract:

The purpose of this study was to investigate Physical Science educators’ teaching approaches to facilitate conceptual understanding of stoichiometry. The National Senior Certificate Physical Sciences question papers analysis showed that the learners struggle to comprehend stoichiometric-related concepts every year and these questions are poorly answered. Also, learners fear stoichiometry and develop a negative attitude toward it. It is against this backdrop that the researcher decided to carry out an exploratory case study. Furthermore, this study followed a qualitative research design with an interpretive paradigm approach. Data was collected with the use of a self-structured closed-ended questionnaire and standardised open-ended interview questions. Also, thematic analysis was used to explore the findings obtained from the participants. Moreover, this study emphasised Vygotsky’s (1978) mediation of learning and social constructivism as this study’s underpinning theory in conjunction with Shulman’s (1987) model of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). Additionally, this study used methodological triangulation since more than one method was used to gather information. The findings of this study revealed that teachers facilitate conceptual understanding with the use of hands-on learning in the form of practical experiments, physical examples to demonstrate certain concepts, and the use of cooperative small tutor groups. Furthermore, participants revealed the common mistakes learners make and the misconceptions they encounter in stoichiometry that result in poor answering of questions.

Keywords:

Stoichiometry, Physical Sciences, teaching approaches, diagnostic report, misconceptions.