Understanding the Diagrammatic Representation of Rotation in Diagrams of Three Dimensional Structures

Abstract

The purpose of this investigation is to evaluate the effectiveness of six instructional programmes with Bahraini secondary students, with an aim to alleviate the problems encountered by them in visualising rotation in molecular diagrams. The experiment concerns a teaching method based on the use of conventional slides projection containing a sequence of diagrams to represent a three‐dimensional structure during a rotation. Six types of remedial programmes were tested on students who showed difficulty in visualising rotation from molecular diagrams. All programmes brought about similar learning situations which were consistent in their degree of significance. However, there were no significant differences in improvement of understanding which were dependent on the number of remedial diagrams. However, when the slides contained multi‐coloured diagrams, which were exposed simultaneously, there was significant learning.