It's the Time to Upgrade the Chemistry Book for Grade Eight

Education is the most significant part to change both personal and professional life, it directs students to know how to read, write, calculate, and communicate. It constructs a good academic and social skills to reach a high success and leverage their performance. Similarly, it gives people the tool that they need to navigate the world. Subsequently, it is the process of facilitating learning and knowing. In addition, education is not an end but a means to an end. That is why we educate ourselves to fit into life. However, most of the education is received through books specifically at the very beginning of our lives with the help of our teachers at school and parents at home. Those books are meant to nourish our intellectual growth. Then the book is to deliver ideas and concepts to students in an understandable way specifically when it comes to link the theoretical aspect to real-life models. However, the educational system in most Lebanese public schools is based on the theoretical knowledge more than the practical one. 

Chemistry is a fundamental branch of science, truly is the central science. Chemistry means a lot of dollars. Everything around us is made from chemicals. Like, medicines, nutrients so by using chemistry we are able to cure most of the dangerous disease. And also geology because why do we wear diamonds and not calcium carbonate on our fingers? Chemistry not neutral to get a good job, but moreover a fun which makes over life interesting. Today’s education system in Lebanon is challenging but needs some changes such as chemistry book. However, this book has advantages that make students feel comfortable and flexible with the material. So each chapter in this book includes a glossary in which it explains the meaning for each the chemical words. So, the students will be able to understand in deep the meaning of every word. As well, in each chapter, we have pictures that describe each activity in the lesson. This will help students to imagine the material and know how the procedure is going in each step. In addition, under each picture, there is a title written in italic form. This draws students’ attention. Moreover, at the end of the book we have the periodic table, so students time by time will memorize the elements and know how the elements were organized in this table and according to what. The subtopic was totally organized in order, smoothly flow from one idea to another. Besides, we have a summary at the end of each chapter, in which the students will be able to know the most important idea. Consequently, to solve any questions. 

   Together we build through education! But what about the heart of education does not contain new curriculum and strategy to follow it. It doesn’t need problem-solving skills? Or what the blooms taxonomy, is it useful in our education? Such questions being introduced obviously presents themselves when we were not able to define them clearly in the context of a chemistry book for grade 8, keeping in mind that such book is being directed to affect a complete generation of students.

According to Bantwini, because the educational system was characterized by racism, discrimination, and inequalities. Then the attention has been focused on the desired educational change and neglects how the curriculum change should be implemented. That is why new curriculum still persists toward the insufficiency (Bantwini, 2009:169).  

The chemistry curriculum in grade 8 was not varying from along of time. This is not effective because most of the content topic was not explained during the year. In the other hand, in each chapter, not all the objective and indicator are tested experimentally in the chemistry book. For instance, color change, explain the difference between physical and chemical change and relate heat or light etc. … this will develop a kind of misunderstanding toward the students. Likewise, students will not be interested in the subject because the whole thing was explaining blindly and was not see the result how it was work. As well as we see most of the students don’t like the chemistry because of the weakness that was found in the book and consequently this will effect on the teachers' role. Also, this is due to the concept of the idea that was given in a way that just to cover the information and not to develop our knowledge and experience, or the material that was not mentioned in our lab to do the experiment. So the teachers don’t have the capacity to teach their students how to analyze or to expenditure the critical thinking. Thus, the teachers in the class use the lower level of blooms taxonomy such as recall knowledge, comprehension, and application. As well they don’t have the ability to develop their strategy. In addition, the chemistry book for grade eight was not linked to each other at the beginning of each unit. Then the students learned every chapter but they don’t know what they will start and in what they will start and in what they will end. This makes students to understand each topic separately and they will not have the full empowerment to see the relation between the organized topics in one unit.  

Moving to the problem that has appeared at the end of each chapter, insight and science and society, we found that they were stated as a text, students in this case, will feel confused to think about them because most of the time they use a strength of compounds and elements that they never study it before. This makes students stay away from those concepts. But, we don’t want to skip the time, which is not included in the book. Most of the time teachers will leave that important information so its role will be just an excess of pages and information. Moreover, each unit was not ended by problem solved that summarized all the information in each chapter. In this book all the units are organized in the same way, so sometimes teachers feel difficult to apply the different strategy in the class or use cooperative model to plan their lesson.

As Colin Powel has best said, “success is the result of perfection, hard work, learning from failure, loyalty, and persistence”. Even the chemistry book of grade 8 is currently under some weakness, solutions do exist to improve its ways and means of delivering information. The curriculum should be developed as planned, progressive, purposeful and systematic process in order to create positive improvement in the educational system. And as we know curriculum development plays a vital role. However, the continual improvement needs to pass through the chart of figure 1 to define and manage its successful implementation. In this report, we went through the process of gathering, processing and analyzing the data to improve the book without having the ability to check before implementing them. However, this report could form a great suggestion and solid foundation that tackle student’s learning from the chemistry book to be assessed at a later stage.

Figure 1: Seven-Step Improvement Process

Once again, the curriculum improvement will open the door to well define the chemistry book in a well-defined time plan. The importance of changing the curriculum is thus to preserve the identity of the book.  The book should have a backward design that develops understanding by applying stage 1: identify the desired results to approach the planning of this design. Also, they can use to state the objective of all the units so students can develop a good known. For example, in unit two “pure substances” ought to have at the beginning of the unit a summary of all the chapters and how they are linked together. Because most of the activity was not explained as it should be then the better solution is to separate the theoretical idea from the experimental one and instead of their activity, put sample exercise at the end of each subtopic that was related to the concept and to the applying formulas that were explained in it. So, in this case, students will develop their theoretical information and also they will enable to practice how to do the practical one. Simultaneously, students develop manipulative skills, use inexpensive materials and include clear and explicit directions that are easy to follow. Those both activities (theoretical and practical one) are the starting point for developing concept and generalization that are related to the life experience. And in this case, the teacher will enable to use the higher level of blooms taxonomy, then the analysis for each experiment should be clear, easy to apply, and take its time. The classification of blooms taxonomy from the lower level to higher level is shown in Figure 2.

  

Figure 2: Classification of Blooms Taxonomy

Book require to have case study that motivates them through critical question and research so instead of text, more preferred to use diagrams, graphs and something interesting that attract and guide them how to make a research or how to develop a small prototype so instead of explaining it in class, students take their time to think, advance, and understand it at home. Moreover, students know how much information is valuable. Also, students will be more mature to solve and identify the problem in our environment and in our society. This will enhance their performance by using self-directed learning in which students can learn by their self. Furthermore, students time by time will be like a researcher so they will be able to make a difference between knowing what to do, and knowing how, when, and why to do it and this remember us by the stage 1 of backward design.

         Besides, chemistry book should have a problem solved the question at the end of each unit. This will allow students to understand in depth the knowledge and skills that let them know the key to each question and then reach the development idea. Involve students higher level thinking questions. So the chapters ought to be grouped extra exercises that collect the most important idea and should be in terms of the cognitive level.

Reference:

1-Bantwini, D.B. (2009). District professional development models as a way to introduce primary
school teachers to natural science curriculum reforms in one district in South Africa. Journal of
Education for Teaching, 35 (2): 169-182.

2-