Analysis of conceptual understanding of solutions and titration among Rwandan secondary school students

Abstract

This study aimed to examine the effect of three teaching approaches: The traditional teaching method, Teacher based demonstration experiment (TBDE), and the Student hands-on experiment (SHE), on students’ conceptual understanding of solutions and titration. The data were collected using a chemistry achievement test (CAT) comprising of 30 multiple-choice questions, prepared according to four levels of Bloom’s taxonomy, including remembering, understanding, applying, and analyzing. The results reveal that TTM alone could help students attain conceptual understanding in the lower-level knowledge domain and showed a slight improvement in the application and analysis level. At the same time, a great misconception was observed in the level of understanding. On the other hand, the combination of TTM with laboratory experiments either by TBDE or SHE improved students’ conceptual understanding of the first three learning domains better than TTM alone. Supplementation of laboratory experiments also improved students’ percentage scores for questions that looked difficult before intervention. The current study recommends that chemistry teachers should combine TTM with a laboratory experiment to bridge the gap between theory and practice. However, despite the positive impact of laboratory experiments in the first three learning domains, their effectiveness seemed to be reduced at the level of analysis. This finding is because the level of inquiry was low. After all, students had to follow the experiment protocol prepared by the teacher. Therefore, we recommend further studies to explore the effect of inquiry-based learning laboratories on students’ conceptual understanding of solutions and titration.

Keywords:

• Bloom’s taxonomy
• conceptual understanding
• TBDE
• TTM
• SHE
• solutions and titration

REVIEWING EDITOR:

• Colby Tofel-Grehl, School of Teacher Education and Leadership, Utah State University, Logan, USA

SUBJECT:

• Chemistry
• Material Science
• Secondary Education

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data used for this study can be made available upon request from the corresponding author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Pascal Kaneza

Pascal Kaneza is a PhD student in chemistry education at the University of Rwanda. His research interests in assessing the effect of hands-on vs demonstration experiments students’ performances and competences in chemistry. ORCID: 0000-0002-9275-2183

Jean Baptiste Nkurunziza

Jean Baptiste Nkurunziza holds a PhD in Chemistry from Mangalore University, India. He also has a Postgraduate Certificate in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education (PGC LTHE) from Kigali Institute of Education. He is currently working as a Senior Lecturer of Chemistry at the University of Rwanda - College of Education. Jean Baptiste is the Principal Investigator of the project entitled “Production of Low-cost chemicals for effective teaching and learning of Chemistry at Lower Secondary Schools in Rwanda”. His current research projects focus on the synthesis of bioactive compounds and Science Education. His publications can be found at 0000-0001-9386-7161

Innocent Twagilimana

Innocent Twagilimana is holder of a PhD in Education from the Witwatersrand University (South Africa), a professional Degree in Monitoring & Evaluation of Educational projects from Cheick Anta Diop University (Senegal), and conducted his postdoctoral studies at the Stockholm University (Sweden) in integration of technologies in education. He also studied and received academic qualifications from the National University of Rwanda, Mons-Hainaut University (Belgium), and the University of the Western Cape (South Africa). Previous responsibilities at both academic and administrative levels: journalist at Rwanda Television before joining the former National University of Rwanda as lecturer and Deputy Director of the Academic Quality Unit; Head of Department (Educational Foundations, Management and Curriculum Studies); was often involved in research projects as Principal Investigator. Worked as consultant with a number of Civil Society Organisations since 2003. Currently Senior Lecturer and Dean of School of Education, University of Rwanda. ORCID ID: 0000-0003-1579-5099

Thumah Mapulanga

Thumah Mapulanga is an experienced biology teacher at the secondary school level in Zambia. Currently, he is a PhD student in biology education at the University of Rwanda. He is also a part-time lecturer of biological sciences at the University of Rwanda, College of Education. His research interests are in biology teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) and science teaching-learning environments. Lately, his interests have extended to technological pedagogical content knowledge of pre-service and in-service biology teachers (TPACK). ORCID: 0000-0002-5609-3539

Anthony Bwalya

Anthony Bwalya is a lecturer of biological sciences at Kwame Nkrumah University in Zambia. He is a PhD student in biology education at the University of Rwanda. His research interests are in pre-service teachers’ technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK). ORCID: 0000-0003-3056-2955