This project has been funded with support from the European Commission.
This material reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein
This project has been funded with support from the European Commission.
This material reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein
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‘How to Make your Students feel Chemistry with Chemistry?’
A Few Words about Motivating Young People to learn Scientific Subjects more Efficiently
Magdalena Gałaj
Wyższa Szkoła Informatyki i Umiejętności (Poland)
Abstract
Contemporary schooling in Poland faces many obstacles with regards to teaching scientific subjects. Despite undergoing a few educational reforms Polish students are still quite reluctant to study subjects like Chemistry and Physics and object to learning anything more than the required minimum. The majority of young people find science difficult, boring and useless – young people clearly call chemistry, biology and physics their least favourite subjects, and they do not have any motivation to explore them further. Within this, teachers struggle in the classroom trying to work both in compatibility with the core curriculum requirements, which after the reforms contains a reduced number of chemistry lessons in all the educational stages, and with the agreement with their own consciousness. Schools are poorly financed and chemistry or physics laboratories badly equipped. Many of teachers are forced to change their teaching and adapt it to the existing situation i.e. poor infrastructure, students’ little expectations and changes in the curriculum. Motivating students is not an easy task but undoubtedly worth trying as there is not a better feeling for the teacher as seeing a young person fully content and satisfied, involved in a scientific task. Teacher’s role today focuses not only on teaching but also on opening students eyes to the world around them, on making them sensitive to critical scientific issues. He or she should be aware of a few tricks how to make science more digestible and student-friendly to a young, curious mind.
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SK,
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Comments about this Paper
Date: 2013.06.04
Posted by Yiannis Sarigiannis (Greece)
Message: This paper presents in a very well documented way of the considerations that a Chemistry teacher needs to take into account in order to make his students passionate for chemistry. The major role of a chemistry teacher for the future of his students is also described.
As it is mentioned, despite the poor financial support or the low equipped laboratories a passionate chemistry teacher could share this passion to his student in low budget experiments by using examples of the real life (i.e. cooking procedures, etc). By this way the creativity of the students and their ability to combine observation and experiments will be developed.
Moreover the text emphasizes the overall behaviour of chemist during the course. Chemical experiments with tricks, knowledge of the science history, research spirit encourage young students to follow the teacher in the magic world of chemistry. At the end, the article describes the ways that a chemistry teacher should follow in order to be educated to pass his passion to the students.
National Reports on successful experiences to promote lifelong learning for chemistry The national reports on chemistry successful experiences to promote lifelong learning for chemistry are now available on the related section of the project portal. The reports presents examples of successful experiences in the partner countries and the results of testing of ICT resources with science teachers.
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