One of my books is:
Taber, K. S. (2020). Foundations for Teaching Chemistry: Chemical knowledge for teaching. Abingdon, Oxon.: Routledge.
Chemistry is a subject that has the power to engage and enthuse students but also to mystify and confound them. Effective chemistry teaching requires a strong foundation of subject knowledge and the ability to transform this into teachable content which is meaningful for students. Drawing on pedagogical principles and research into the difficulties that many students have when studying chemical concepts, this essential text presents the core ideas of chemistry to support new and trainee chemistry teachers, including non-specialists.
The book focuses on the foundational ideas that are fundamental to and link topics across the discipline of chemistry and considers how these often complex notions can be effectively presented to students without compromising on scientific authenticity. Chapters cover:
- the nature of chemistry as a science
- the chemistry triplet
- substances and purity in chemistry
- the periodic table
- energy in chemistry and chemical bonding
- contextualising and integrating chemical knowledge
Whilst there are a good many books describing chemistry and many others that offer general pedagogic guidance on teaching science, Foundations for Teaching Chemistry provides accounts of core chemical topics from a teaching perspective and offers new and experienced teachers support in developing their own ‘chemical knowledge for teaching’.
Download the publisher's sample
Contents:
Foundations for Teaching Chemistry; Chemical Knowledge for Teaching
- 1 Introduction – the rationale for reading about ‘chemical knowledge for teaching’
- Developing knowledge through teaching
- Chemical knowledge for teaching
- Curriculum, scheme of work, lessons, activities, moves
- 2 The nature of chemistry as a science
- The nature of chemistry and of chemical concepts
- The interplay of empirical investigation and theory
- The role of concepts in teaching chemistry
- 3 Reflecting the nature of chemistry in teaching
- Arguments for making the nature of chemistry explicit
- The central role of models in teaching and learning chemistry
- The nature of chemistry and CKfT
- 4 The chemistry triplet
- The chemistry triplet can overload students’ working memories
- A simple take on the chemistry triplet
- Thinking about chemistry at the macroscopic ‘level’
- Thinking about chemistry at the submicroscopic ‘level’
- Thinking about how we represent our chemistry
- 5 The submicroscopic realm
- Challenges associated with learning about the submicroscopic ‘level’
- Explaining observables with submicroscopic models
- 6 Concepts in chemistry
- What are concepts?
- Examining our chemical definitions
- Some fundamental chemical concepts
- Periodicity
- Chemical reactions
- 7. The most fundamental chemical concept: Substance
- The notion of a substance
- Substances at the submicroscopic level
- Consolidation and progression in learning about the submicroscopic nature of substances
- 8 Pure substances: Elements and compounds
- Pure samples of substances: the meaning of ‘pure’
- Elements and compounds
- 9 The periodic table
- Periodic tables (plural)
- What is the periodic table?
- Periodic table concepts
- The periodic table as an ambiguous representation bridging bench phenomena and atomic models
- Trends in atomic size
- 10 Energy in chemistry and chemical bonding
- Appreciating the physicists’ concept of energy and how this applies in chemistry
- Energy and structure
- Teaching about chemical bonding
- 11 Energy and chemical change
- Energy input can disrupt otherwise stable structures
- Chemical reactions
- Chemical reactions are equilibria
- Classes of substance and classes of reactions
- Reaction mechanisms
- 12 Contextualising and integrating chemical knowledge
- Applications of the chemistry and context-based teaching
- Teaching socioscientific issues
- Synoptic topics
- Teaching about the environment and complexity
Download the publisher's sample
