One of Keith's publications is
Taber, K. S. (2020). Conceptual confusion in the chemistry curriculum: exemplifying the problematic nature of representing chemical concepts as target knowledge. Foundations of Chemistry, 22:309–334. doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s10698-019-09346-3
This article is open access, and can be read and downloaded here.
Direct link for pdf version
Abstract
This paper considers the nature of a curriculum as presented in formal curriculum documents, and the inherent difficulties of representing formal disciplinary knowledge in a prescription for teaching and learning. The general points are illustrated by examining aspects of a specific example, taken from the chemistry subject content included in the science programmes of study that are part of the National Curriculum in England (an official document published by the UK government). In particular, it is suggested that some statements in the official curriculum document are problematic if we expect a curriculum to represent canonical disciplinary knowledge in an unambiguous and authentic manner. The paper examines the example of the requirement for English school children to be taught that chemical reactions take place in only three different ways (i.e., proton transfer; electron transfer; electron sharing) and considers how this might be interpreted in terms of canonical chemistry and within the wider context of other curriculum statements, in order to make sense of neutralisation and precipitation reactions. It is argued that although target knowledge that is set out as the focus of teaching and learning cannot be identical to disciplinary knowledge, the English National Curriculum offers a representation of chemistry which distorts and confuses canonical ideas. It is suggested that the process of representing the disciplinary knowledge of chemistry as curriculum specifications is worthy of more scholarly attention.
Contents
The article has the following sections:
- Introduction
- The idea of curriculum
- The process of determining curriculum
- Potential scope
- Selection
- Simplification
- Theoretical perspective
- The spiral curriculum
- The spectre of canonical concepts
- The English National Curriculum
- A curriculum model of reaction mechanisms
- An exclusive typology of types of reaction mechanism
- Interpreting proton transfer, electron transfer, and electron sharing
- Precipitation reactions
- Neutralisation reactions
- Defining chemical reactions
- An atomic ontology
- An alternative conception of ionic bonding
- Discussion
