Database of Publications

Date: 2014.05.12

Posted by Adriana Tafrova - Grigorova (Bulgaria)

Message: Understanding of subject specific language in chemistry by learners is a very important element and a premise for the development of scientific literacy and conceptual understanding of science as a whole. A variety of teaching strategies developed and trialled by the authors of this paper are aimed to study students’ perceptions of the utility of these approaches. On the basis of the results from students’ opinion an E-glossary of fundamental scientific terms and concepts is proposed. A great advantage of this glossary is that the students can add their own explanations of the chemical concepts and theories and thus to facilitate the perception of specific chemistry language. The teaching strategies presented here are an example of good educational practice, a way to stimulate student interaction and motivation to learn better the meaning of chemistry terms.
The research work reported in the publication is carried out professionally and is completely suitable for the project topic “Successful experience”. The results are clearly described and presented.
The article would be of interest for chemistry teachers as well as for university researchers in the field of chemistry education.

Date: 2014.04.07

Posted by Julien Keutgen (Belgium)

Message: This is a very interesting article on a great initiative to help understand science and motivate students. It first reminds the importance of language, and particularly terminology in science, where words and terms have very specific meaning that can vary according to the discipline. Based on this fact, it describes the e-glossary, an online scientific glossary updated by students. This is a great tool to make scientific terminology accessible to a large and varied audience, all the more that the words are explained in various ways (definitions, analogies, videos). This is also a great way to foster students’ participation and imagination since they are the contributors to the glossary.

Date: 2014.04.03

Posted by Mária Fabianová (Slovakia)

Message: This very interesting publication focusing on evaluation the effect of different interactive approaches applied for better understanding specific scientific language used in chemistry education.The target goups of this investigation are foreign students. The effectiveness of the number and types of strategies employed was checked by submitting the students questionnaires and other tests. Publication shows 2 valuable classroom strategies, ready to implement in many education institutions. The teaching strategies described in this paper can stimulate student interaction and increase their opportunities to construct meanings for chemistry terms.The research activities have been conducted in two academic years including modeling activities, word games, competition activities, and interactive glossary development. A number of students were involved in glossary development and its further improvement. Publication shows very clearly how this approach may lead to higher level of comprehension of concepts and motivation of the students involved in the learning process. Veyr important is conclusion about a strong relation between teaching chemistry and linguistic teaching, to avoid increasing the scale of confusions. Publication is very helpful not only for teachers but also for management staff of schools, at every level.

Date: 2014.03.31

Posted by Sanakis Ioannis (Greece)

Message: This article is concerned with teaching Chemistry to international and non traditional students. The research focuses on teaching strategies to enhance understanding of subject specific language by this group of people. From this point of view, the publication is not relevant to elementary and high school pupils. The authors recognize that “the technical and conceptual language needed to develop understanding in chemistry can pose particularly significant challenges to students.” The project aimed in developing strategies in order to resolve this issue.

The project, with the contribution of the students, took two academic years. Several activities were trialed and evaluated. In their effort to have an understanding of Chemistry, the students usually search on the web. This random search might lead to misconceptions and misunderstanding. Therefore, within the project a E-glossary was developed. The authors consider that this web-based interactive data base is beneficial for this specific group of students.

Date: 2014.03.29

Posted by Effimia Ireiotou (Greece)

Message: The publication describes the outcomes of research related to effective teaching strategies to enhance understanding of subject specific language by international and non-traditional students. During this research, teaching strategies with an emphasis on improving scientific literacy were tried out over the course of an academic year in foundation level chemistry. The strategies included examples to show the term in context, glossaries, modeling, visual aids, analogies, role play, word games, card sorting/definition matching exercises and practical experiments. The impact of the strategies was reviewed using class questionnaires and focus groups. Results showed that students found most helpful the following: practical experiments, analogies, visual aids, modeling and examples in context, even though all were found to stimulate student interaction and increase their opportunities to construct meanings for chemistry terms. At the end an E-glossary was developed to support language understanding.
The publication is relevant as it proposes several strategies to increase understanding of a subject in chemistry by students. It offers effective solutions to overcome barriers, in this case language being an important one. It helps teachers to keep update to the new teaching methodology as many of the strategies used are applicable to chemistry teaching in general and can be helpful to the understanding of chemistry at the secondary school level. ICTs are suggested to be used by using the E-glossary. This last concept has the advantage of being readily adaptable and capable of responding to unanticipated needs and student feedback.
The most useful fact that I realized reading this work was the importance of variety in the strategies used to achieve an effective teaching.

Date: 2014.03.26

Posted by Ioanna Karachaliou (Greece)

Message: This publication refers to successful strategies that have been applied so that chemistry terms and concepts are better understood. It has to be noted that these strategies were tested during classes to non-traditional students (different countries and cultures as well as ages) who, however, are taught in English.
Some examples of strategies used in class, involve models, games with words, glossaries. ICT was also utilized to a large extent via the creation of an on-line dictionary (e-glossary) in which students could upload their own definitions to keywords with the aid of their teacher. The e-glossary was based on principles such as the diversity of the material (eg. videos, animations) and the use of several languages so that it could be used by people with different learning habits and ways of understanding. Some definitions were created by the students as part of their obligatory assignments while many were also the result of voluntary work. One of the main aims for the creation of the glossary has been the collection of different types of examples for each term and understanding the utilization of the same term(s) in different contexts.
Personally I think that the e-glossary is a superb idea and I believe that such type of teaching strategy would be useful even among younger students and also in more homogeneous classes, like for example in a Greek upper secondary school. Students would be urged to study and understand chemistry via a unique and very interesting approach.

Date: 2014.03.04

Posted by Elena Ghibaudi (Italy)

Message: The paper deals with the problem of understanding the subject-specific language employed in the context of chemistry teaching at the university level. In order to improve such understanding, the authors applied different strategies (modeling, word games, glossaries, etc) within the frame of a constructivist view, that assigns the student an active role in the learning process. The effectiveness of the number and types of strategies employed was checked by submitting the students questionnaires and other tests.
The publication is relevant under two distinct perspectives: i) the methodology employed, that makes wide use of informatics means to assure a large participation of the students in the interactive activities associated with the learning process. ii) the outcomes of the study, that shows that the scientific language is a barrier in the learning process of students. This implies that great attention should be paid to the building up of a scientific glossary, shared by teacher and students.
As each student has its personal learning mechanism, the use of several distinct strategies (modeling, analogies, word games, etc.) that may cope with the different need of students is extremely important. The paper describes the interactive building up of an E-glossary, with the co-participation of students and teachers. The possibility, offered by the informatics mean, to involve students in such activity turned out to be crucial to the effectiveness of this activity.
The paper refers explicitly to a constructivist approach and shows very clearly how this approach may lead to higher level of comprehension of concepts and motivation of the students involved in the learning process.
The paper explicitly mentions the use of informatics interactive means that allowed students to build up an e-glossary. In addition, it mentions the effectiveness of using animations, video and other visual aids that may be found on the web to help student\'s understanding and correct learning.

Date: 2014.02.23

Posted by Assoc. Prof. Samir Naimov (Bulgaria)

Message: The article reviewed is prepared in very professional way by British research team. The main goal of the study presented is to evaluate the effect of different interactive approaches applied for better understanding specific scientific language used in chemistry education. The target subjects of this investigation are foreign and so called nontraditional students. The topic is interesting and can be used from many chemistry teachers not only in high schools but also in universities and other education institutions. Therefore the topic fits very well to main aims of project topic “Successful experience”. The research activities have been conducted in two academic years including modeling activities, word games, competition activities, and interactive glossary development. A number of students were involved in glossary development and its further improvement. A web base glossary was made accessible to students and their feedback has been taken in account. On my opinion it is very important to highlight the fact that the authors has taken in account that the number of clicks required to access a particular function is related to the frequency of use of function. In this regard the user friendly interface of the web tool is essential for its success. In the same time the web tool designed provides several different types of learning materials such as video files, animations, games and etc. The effect of implementation of the newly developed education tools has been assessed in the stage evaluation process. During the first and second stage the impact of strategies and benefits of the e-glossary is reviewed using class questionnaires. The results for both review sections are described clearly. In order to illustrate students’ opinion several independent examples are provided. It became clear that personal perception of students plays important role in successful chemistry learning. At the end of the article the authors subject their findings to detailed discussion, comparing their data with the recent achievements in this field

Date: 2014.02.23

Posted by Mariusz Jarocki (Poland)

Message: The article raises a very important issue of hermeticity of the language used in the teaching of chemistry in the context of teaching international and on-line students (e-learning). It considers an example of Durham University’s Foundation Centre which is very competent in the matter. The document includes very valuable classroom strategies, ready to implement in similar to Foundation Centre places. The teaching strategies described in this paper can stimulate student interaction and increase their opportunities to construct meanings for chemistry terms. I like very much a conclusion about a strong relation between teaching chemistry and linguistic teaching, to avoid increasing the scale of confusions. The document can be very helpful not only for teachers but also for management staff of schools, at every level.

Date: 2013.12.13

Posted by Marcela Grecova (Czech Republic)

Message: 1) Which kinds of successful experiences does the publication describe?
The article named Can I have a word please describes a new teaching strategies with an emphasis on improving scientific literacy.

2) Why is this publication relevant? How does the publication help teachers?
Students are afraid from chemistry. This article shows new possibilities to make chemistry more accessible for everyone. It helps to explain some terms and policy lessons and to overcome the barriers between experts, teachers and students.

3) Does the publication propose solutions in order to exploit at secondary school level the most recent findings in the field of chemistry?
It does. The article describes teaching strategies in foundation level chemistry.

4) Does the publication suggest how to use ICTs in the teaching of chemistry?
It does. Students need to use the ICTs for the E-glossary. Article include a link to the appropriate website