LEARNING CHEMICAL KINETICS AT SECONDARY SCHOOL LEVEL: MISCONCEPTIONS AND ALTERNATIVE APPROACH

Chemical kinetics occupies a central position in describing and understanding the dynamic behaviour of matter. It is then expected that this topic shares a significant part in the teaching curricula. Nevertheless, the review of the scarce literature on the topic reveals that little is usually invested to adequately include this field in the major programs. Most studies demonstrate that the teaching approaches in chemical kinetics often remain limited to the qualitative macroscopic description and do not identify the necessary relevant links between the macroscopic and the submicroscopic scales. Consequently, low levels of conceptual understanding and many misconceptions can be identified at the students’ level. Based on the constructivist
approach in which the learners build their own cognitive structure, a new teaching sequence including qualitative and quantitative aspects of chemical kinetics for secondary school students (15-17 years old) is proposed. This teaching sequence allows the students to develop an ability to use corpuscular models as explanatory tools as well as an adequate conceptual understanding of chemical kinetics. This approach integrates visualization tools along with active learning strategies using, e.g., interactive websites.