Author: Xiao Mei (09 Normal Class of Chemistry Major in Nanjing Xiaozhuang College)
Instructor: Qi Long
[Abstract] Based on the analysis of the content, presentation, proportion change and educational function of chemistry history in junior high school chemistry textbooks published by People's Education Press, the corresponding implementation suggestions are given, and examples are given to analyze how to give full play to the educational function of chemistry history materials in the textbooks, and suggestions are put forward for the improper use of chemistry history resources in chemistry education.
[Keywords:] Chemistry textbooks; History of chemistry; teaching resource
1. Introduction The earliest history of advocating science education in the West can be traced back to the middle of19th century. In a speech at 185 1, the then president of the British Association for the Advancement of Science called for: "What we want to teach young people is not so much scientific conclusions as the history of science". After World War II, a group of educators, represented by J. conant, a famous American educator and chemist and president of Harvard University, carried out the practice of introducing case teaching method into schools to educate the history of science, and achieved great success. Therefore, all countries in the world have begun to attach importance to the education of the history of science, and have achieved success one after another.
Chemistry education has been offered in China since the third grade of junior high school. For junior high school students, chemistry is an introductory course, and the teaching materials attach great importance to the role of enlightenment. Moreover, junior high school students are still in childhood from a psychological point of view, or something intuitive and interesting can stimulate the brain more. The education of chemical history is not only to tell some short stories, attract students' attention and introduce some historical facts appropriately. It can help students understand relevant scientific knowledge, scientific process and methods, and cultivate students' scientific attitude, emotion and values. The chemistry curriculum standard of compulsory education in China regards chemical history as "optional learning situation material", which can provide students with various real learning situations, create a lively and interesting learning atmosphere based on life experience and social culture, and promote students' learning enthusiasm. As Sutton, a famous American historian of science, said, "The history of science can help us achieve the main purpose of teaching. It can explain the significance of science, its functions and methods, its logical, psychological and social significance, its profound humanity and its significance for ideological purification and cultural integration." It can be seen that the history of chemistry is an important resource of chemistry education.
Second, the application status and presentation of chemical history in junior high school chemistry teaching
(1) Application status
The importance of carrying out the education and teaching of chemical history has been generally recognized by the vast number of chemical educators. However, whether the teaching function of chemical history can be brought into full play depends on whether teachers carry out the education and teaching of chemical history in chemistry curriculum education and the results achieved. The development of chemistry history education and teaching can be reflected by the frequency with which chemistry teachers introduce chemistry history into chemistry teaching.
Figure 1 Frequency of Introducing Chemical History into Teachers' Teaching
As can be seen from the table, 54% teachers never use the history of chemistry for education and teaching, only 43% teachers occasionally use the history of chemistry for education and teaching, and only 3% teachers often use the history of chemistry for education and teaching. It can be seen that the development of chemical history education and teaching in middle schools in China is not optimistic.
In view of this situation, the author consulted some documents to understand the chemistry teachers' understanding of introducing chemistry history teaching into the classroom. Form design is based on the process of teaching theory, starting from the reality of "teaching" and "learning" in middle schools, and comprehensively looking for reasons through three aspects: people, things and information.
Table 1: Questionnaire on Chemistry Teachers' Understanding of Introducing Chemistry History Teaching into Classroom
Totally agree, agree to neutral opposition.
The textbook covers a wide range of knowledge about chemical history, covering12 (30%) 6 (15%) 2 (5%) 20 (50%).
3. There are few test sites (20 (50%)16 (40%)1(2.5%) 3 (7.5%) with knowledge of chemical history in senior high school entrance examination and college entrance examination.
[13] Chemical history knowledge test in senior high school entrance examination and college entrance examination 24 (60%)15 (37.5%)1(2.5%) 0 (0%).
3. The teaching of chemical history is helpful to stimulate students' patriotic sentiments 30 (75%) 10 (25%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%).
⒌ The teaching of chemical history is conducive to cultivating students' comprehensive ability: 265,438+0 (52%) 65,438+06 (40%) 2 (5%) 65,438+0 (2.5%).
It is difficult for students to learn the knowledge of chemical history12 (30%)10 (25%) 2 (5%)16 (40%).
For teachers, the knowledge of chemical history is difficult to teach: 15 (37. 5%) 12 (30%) 1 (2.5%) 12 (30%).
Through the above investigation and analysis, it shows that middle school chemistry teachers generally believe that attaching importance to and strengthening the teaching of chemical history knowledge is conducive to stimulating students' patriotic sentiment and cultivating students' comprehensive ability. However, due to the influence of the "unified entrance examination" and the traditional "exam-oriented" education, some teachers think that the entrance examination and the college entrance examination involve fewer test sites and the examination questions are easy. Teachers only need to read textbooks, and students only need to memorize test sites, so teaching and learning are easy. Another part of teachers think that the knowledge of chemical history is wide and wide, and it is difficult to teach with students' existing cognitive level.
(b) introducing the history of chemistry in teaching materials
The Science Curriculum Standard puts forward five ways for the history of science to enter the science curriculum: (1) as the background material for introducing new knowledge; (2) As an example and exercise; (3) Insert relevant information; (4) As an extensible reading material; (5) As materials for scientific and technological activities. It is also pointed out that introducing the history of science into the science curriculum in compulsory education stage is mainly a way and means for students to learn science. The history of science should not be assessed as a new knowledge point, and its teaching effect should be reflected by students' understanding of relevant scientific knowledge, understanding of scientific processes and methods, and cultivating students' scientific attitude, emotions and values.
Table 2 History of PEP Chemistry
Chapter of chemical history
The main content of chemical history
Cut into the history of chemistry
Presentation mode
Introduce the discovery and utilization of fire and some ancient objects; Dalton, Evan Gardlow and the Composition of Atoms and Molecules; Mendeleev and the Period of Elements
main body
Pictures, words
Unit 1 Theme 2 Alchemy and Alchemy, Early Chemistry Laboratory
main body
Pictures, words
Lavoisier and the discovery of oxygen and air composition.
Pictures, words
Lavoisier, priestley, cavendish and the composition of water.
material
trait
Academician Zhang Qinglian and the Determination of Relative Atomic Mass
material
Words, pictures
Unit 4 Theme 2
Dalton and Element Symbol
material
Words, pictures
Lavoisier and the Law of Conservation of Mass
material
Words, pictures
Unit 6 Theme 1 Synthetic Diamonds and Diamond Films
Chemistry? Technology? society
Words, pictures
Unit 6 Project 1 After-class Exercise
Oil bomb
utilize
trait
Unit 6 Theme 3
greenhouse effect
main body
trait
Unit 7 Topic 1
Combustion utilization
main body
Words, pictures
Unit 7 Topic 2
China ancient energy and firing pottery.
main body
Words, pictures
Unit 7 Theme 3
Statue and the harm of acid rain
Activities and surveys
draw
Unit 8 Topic 1 metal material; Bronze galloping horse; Cangzhou iron lion; Utilization of lead
main body
Pictures, words
Unit 8 Theme 3
China ancient ironmaking
main body
draw
Unit 11 Topic 1
Application of marble as an important building material
main body
draw
Hou, the pioneer of alkali industry in China.
material
Words, pictures
1 1 unit topic 2
/kloc-the use of chemical fertilizers in the 0/8th century
main body
trait
1 1 unit topic 2
Classification of substances
Extended theme
trait
Unit 12 topic 3
Conductive material; Nanomaterials chemistry? Technology? society
trait
As can be seen from the above table, the chemical history textbooks in junior high school chemistry textbooks are mostly presented in the form of illustrations and reading materials. Illustrations show a wide range of chemical history, involving portraits of chemists, experimental instruments and equipment, and objects that are difficult to see in daily life. Illustrations and words complement each other, vividly explaining or explaining knowledge and promoting students' understanding of abstract concepts; Secondly, the reasonable collocation of illustrations and words makes the teaching materials visually illustrated and patchwork, showing a harmonious beauty, which conforms to the age characteristics and cognitive laws of junior high school students.
Reading materials are the expansion of the text content. Due to the limitation of textbook length and subject knowledge structure, some chemical history materials are inconvenient to appear in the text, so various columns, such as "information" columns, are set up next to the text or after class in the textbook. The purpose of this presentation is: on the one hand, to supplement and expand the text content, broaden students' horizons and deepen students' understanding of the text knowledge; On the other hand, it can maintain the strict logical structure of text knowledge and highlight the continuity and integrity of subject knowledge.
Third, the lack of chemical history materials in textbooks.
In the new curriculum standard textbook of 200 1, the form of chemical history is more diversified and the content is richer, and many illustrations and pictures are added to the text. Such as painted pottery, ancient paintings, statues and transparent diamond films. With appropriate words to explain or describe, the knowledge of chemical history is integrated into each unit and topic. The picture is bright, vivid, intuitive, cordial and profound, which is more convincing than words, making the knowledge of chemical history more intuitive and easy to understand, closer to life, improving junior high school students' reading, interest and rich imagination, and playing a role in inspiring thinking and promoting. It is beneficial to provide students with familiar life scenes and existing practical experience and other learning materials, further stimulate students' interest in learning chemistry, and make students gradually understand the important influence of chemistry on daily life and social development [2], but there are still shortcomings in the content, presentation form and distribution of chemical history materials.
(A) the history of chemistry is too rough
Table 1 the proportion of chemical history in textbooks in recent years
Version1978198219871994 2006 5438+0 2006 5438+0 (new curriculum standard)
The proportion is 5%15%15% 31%32% 50%.
As can be seen from the table, the proportion of chemical history materials in the new curriculum standard textbooks has greatly increased from 1978 to 200 1, and we can feel that the importance of chemical history education has penetrated into the educational concept of educators. However, looking through the textbooks, we can find that the materials of chemical history have been changed by the writers, which are too rough and can not achieve the purpose of subtly guiding students to learn scientific methods. For example, lavoisier's experiment on the composition of air: "More than two hundred years ago, French chemist lavoisier studied the composition of air with quantitative methods. He put a small amount of mercury in a closed container and heated it continuously 12 days. It was found that some silvery white liquid mercury turned into red powder, and the volume of air in the container almost decreased by 1/5. He studied the remaining 4/5 volume of gas and found that this part of gas can neither supply breathing nor support combustion. He mistakenly believes that all these gases are nitrogen (Latin means "unable to support life").
Lavoisier collected the red powder generated on the surface of mercury, put it into another smaller container to strengthen the heat, and got mercury and oxygen (chemical formula is O2). The volume of oxygen is just equal to the reduced volume in the closed container. The oxygen he got was added to the remaining 4/5 volume of gas in the front container, and the gas he got was exactly the same as air. "We all know that lavoisier didn't call this gas which can neither provide breathing nor support combustion nitrogen at first, but it was called nitrogen only at 179 1. There is no oxygen. Lavoisier called it "elastic fluid", which was defined by later generations through continuous exploration. In addition, such information does not take up much space and is easy to understand, and it is not troublesome to add, which can imply to students that scientific discovery is a gradual process and it is impossible to have results at once.
(2) There are too few exercises about the history of chemistry.
In order to deepen students' understanding of the law of conservation of mass, the textbook of Shandong Education Publishing House presents another material of chemical history in the form of after-school exercises: Boyle's experiment to explore the change of substance quality in chemical reactions. The textbook uses this material to create problem situations, so that students can analyze the reasons why Boyle passed the law of conservation of mass. Using exercises to guide students to analyze and evaluate events in chemical history materials can not only inspire students' thinking and consolidate their knowledge, but more importantly, make them educated in scientific ideas and methods, and lay a foundation for gradually understanding the nature of science. Materials of chemical history have become carriers of "static" scientific achievements and "dynamic" processes and methods, and catalysts for promoting students to master natural scientific methods and understand the nature of science. However, there are few exercises about the history of chemistry in the People's Education Edition, which makes students ignore the history of chemistry when studying chemistry.
(c) The history of chemistry in textbooks seldom involves China people.
China's chemical history materials (clearly pointed out) occupy a large proportion in the chemical history of chemistry textbooks. However, there are few Chinese names involved in textbooks. This is not conducive to patriotic education and to improving national pride and self-confidence.
(D) The distribution of chemical historical materials in teaching materials is uneven.
From the analysis and research of chemical history data, we can see that the distribution of chemical history data in the three versions of teaching materials is unbalanced. On the one hand, on the basis of a large number of chemical historical materials integrated into the textbook, chemical historical materials do not cover all chapters in the textbook, and the next volume of each edition involves less chemical history. On the other hand, the chemical historical materials in some chapters of the textbook are relatively concentrated. For example, in the second quarter of chapter 3 of the previous edition, there were three readings and seven pictures, involving four chemists. The excessive concentration of chemical historical materials has caused a waste of chemical history resources to some extent.
Four suggestions and thoughts on developing the educational function of chemical history in teaching materials
At present, most teachers in China pay attention to students' mastery of knowledge and application of exercises, and emphasize chemists' intelligence and diligence with chemical history. Ignoring the mistakes of chemists and the hardships of research, that is, the "humanity" of chemists, makes the career of chemists farther and farther away from students.
(1) Teachers should carefully create practice situations to further develop the educational function of chemical history in practice.
Creating practice situations by using chemical history is one of the important ways to introduce chemical history into teaching. Its advantage lies in that it can not only make the original boring exercises lively, improve students' interest in learning, but also enable students to be influenced and educated by the history of chemistry. In view of the general lack of chemical history materials in teaching materials, teachers should actively explore chemical history materials to write exercises in the teaching process to make up for the lack of chemical history exercises in teaching materials. When writing exercises, teachers should choose some typical chemical historical materials, which not only reflect the requirements of curriculum standards, but also play a key or breakthrough role in the development of chemical science, such as the discovery history of elements and substances, the development history of chemical concepts and theories, and the cognitive process of material structure. When compiling exercises, we should also focus on the main line of "scientific facts, scientific ideas, scientific methods and scientific spirit". The four involved in this main line are an inseparable unified whole, which is not only the core of the history of science, but also the main line of teaching, training and evaluation. Through learning, students can develop in an all-round way from three angles: knowledge and skills, process and method, emotional attitude and values. In addition, when compiling exercises, we should choose different levels of questions according to the content, objectives and students' characteristics of chemical history teaching, which reflects different levels of educational functions. It can be multiple-choice questions, true or false questions, fill-in-the-blank questions, essays or problem solving.
(B) in the teaching process to further enrich and expand the content and presentation of chemical historical materials.
Although the chemical historical materials in the textbook are carefully designed by the editor based on the curriculum standards and the actual situation of the textbook, this does not mean that the chemical historical materials in the textbook are "available and effective". On the one hand, some chemical historical materials in textbooks are too simple, which is not conducive to their educational functions. These historical materials need to be further enriched. In the process of enriching the historical materials of chemical history in teaching materials, it is not necessary to make them complete, but it is important to highlight their educational functions so that students can be truly inspired and educated. For example, Shandong Education Publishing House only presents the chemical properties of metals in the second quarter of Unit 7 in the form of exercises in "Challenge Yourself", which is of little educational significance. If we can present it in the form of words and reaction principle after the experimental exploration of the reaction between metal and salt solution, students can better understand its essence and better grasp the knowledge points of the reaction between metal and salt solution.
On the other hand, the uneven distribution of chemical history materials in teaching materials, different resources of different schools, different knowledge reserves of teachers and different characteristics of students' original knowledge, hobbies and psychological development have affected the form and content of chemical history education. Based on this consideration, in order to give full play to the educational function of chemical history, teachers should also work hard on the presentation of chemical history when preparing lessons.
(3) We should appropriately increase the teaching of China's chemical history materials and figures, and further strengthen patriotism education.
China has a long history and splendid historical and cultural wealth, among which the history related to chemistry is a wonderful work. The four great inventions in the world, black powder and papermaking, famous porcelain, and the discovery of alchemists in China ... these are the immortal brilliance left by our ancestors, and they all shine with the light of chemistry. The number of textbooks on the history of chemistry in China is not satisfactory, but the names of chemists in China are really rare. In order to further improve the quality of patriotism education and the self-confidence and self-esteem of the nation, it is of great benefit to appropriately increase the chemical history of our country and the names of relevant people. Moreover, the appearance of China historical celebrities in textbooks can also set an example for students. There are many people who can refer to the introduction, such as alchemist Wei Boyang in the Eastern Han Dynasty, alchemist Ge Hong in the Jin Dynasty, and Xu Shou, the pioneer of modern chemistry in China. ...
(D) Strengthen the chemistry history literacy of middle school chemistry teachers.
From the practical point of view, the education of chemical history extends to the whole level of the education of science history. Although more and more attention has been paid to the history of science education, which is also clearly reflected in curriculum standards and textbooks, the history of science education has not formed the mainstream. The main reason is that most science teachers themselves have not received much education in the history and philosophy of science. As BAAS pointed out in a report in 1960s, "their behaviors and thoughts are the result of vocational training, and they lack an understanding of the nature and purpose of science". Therefore, the educational function of chemical history in textbooks is limited by some factors in the textbooks themselves. The biggest problem is that most middle school chemistry teachers lack the background knowledge of chemical history. These teachers themselves did not systematically study the history of chemistry in the process of learning, and rarely got inspiration from the relevant textbooks of the history of chemistry. Therefore, when they become teachers, they are rarely willing to use the history of chemistry to teach, or rarely know how to teach the content of the history of chemistry correctly. Therefore, it is very necessary to improve the quality of chemistry history of middle school chemistry teachers through retraining and communication between teachers.
In a word, with the continuous advancement of quality education, actively exploring the performing education of chemical history is the premise to fully tap the educational function of chemical history and cultivate and improve students' scientific literacy.
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