The aim of this research was to develop an effective, generative, and practical approach to enhance students’ structure-property reasoning (SPR). The approach consists of an evaluation instrument... Show moreThe aim of this research was to develop an effective, generative, and practical approach to enhance students’ structure-property reasoning (SPR). The approach consists of an evaluation instrument that assesses the level of structure-property reasoning and a teaching practice to make structure-property reasoning more explicit for students.As base of the approach, the perspective for SPR was used as model for structure-property reasoning. With this model, we aimed to represent the relationship between chemical concepts and the skill of structure-property reasoning.The SPR-instrument combines a sorting task with a mapping task based on the perspective for SPR. The instrument was tested on secondary school students and first-year chemistry students. The results showed that the SPR-instrument can discriminate between these two groups.This teaching practice consists of demonstration experiments with two design principles, namely the Predict-Observe-Explain (POE) approach and the perspective for SPR. The teaching practice was tested on Y-4 pre-university students. The results showed that the teaching practice contributed to the development of structure-property reasoning. The practicality of (re)designed demonstrations appeared to be as high as that of "traditional" demonstrations.The research showed that perspective for SPR (combined or not with POE-demonstrations) could bridge the gap in students’ chemical reasoning. Show less
This thesis explored the question whether Scrum methodology might function as an appropriate scaffold to enhance students’ learning and to support teachers in context-based secondary chemistry... Show moreThis thesis explored the question whether Scrum methodology might function as an appropriate scaffold to enhance students’ learning and to support teachers in context-based secondary chemistry education. Context-based approaches have been designed and implemented to address several problems, including passive involvement of students and perceived irrelevance of chemistry.Scrum methodology is a project management framework which consists of specific ceremonies and artefacts to monitor the workflow of complex projects in businesses and industries.The Scrum characteristics were adjusted to the specific situation of a context-based learning environment. Five studies were conducted to reveal its impact on students’ learning as well as on teachers’ teaching. The results show that students participating in Scrum classes outperformed students participating in the control condition with regard to both cognitive and metacognitive learning outcomes. Moreover, the impact of Scrum methodology on students’ learning increased when teachers were able to apply a rich repertoire of didactical and pedagogical expertise, indicating that the role of a teacher remains invaluable.The findings provide evidence that the implementation of a project-management framework in an educational context scaffolds and strengthens students in their learning process, which in turn is beneficial for learning outcomes. Show less
