Which of the following is the most suitable strategy for introducing the…
2024
Which of the following is the most suitable strategy for introducing the students to the concept of 'chemical reactions' at upper primary level?
Answer: D. Hold a discussion on chemical reactions which students are likely to have observed in their lives — Concept: A new science concept at the upper primary stage is introduced by moving from the concrete to the abstract. Constructivist pedagogy, as set out in…
- A.
Explain the concept of valence electrons and electronic configuration
- B.
Write the chemical equations in symbolic form and ask students to observe
- C.
Define a chemical reaction and give examples
- D.
Hold a discussion on chemical reactions which students are likely to have observed in their lives
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: D
Concept: A new science concept at the upper primary stage is introduced by moving from the concrete to the abstract. Constructivist pedagogy, as set out in NCF 2005, holds that an idea becomes meaningful only when it is anchored to something the learner already has in experience. So teaching begins by drawing out and organising the learners’ own observations of the phenomenon; the formal definition, the symbolic representation and the sub-atomic explanation are later, more abstract layers built on that base.
Application: A chemical reaction is a change in which the original substances are converted into new substances with new properties. Upper primary learners meet such changes every day — milk turning sour, an iron gate rusting, a matchstick burning, a chapati browning on the tawa, fruit ripening, food being digested. Classroom talk in which learners recall and describe these familiar changes makes the phenomenon concrete before it is named, brings their existing ideas and misconceptions into the open where the teacher can work with them, and builds a shared bank of examples from which the general idea of a chemical reaction can be generalised. The introduction should therefore be a discussion of chemical reactions the learners are likely to have observed in their own lives.
Cross-check: Compare the four strategies by where each one begins.
Strategy | Where it begins |
|---|---|
Explain the concept of valence electrons and electronic configuration | At the sub-atomic level. In the NCERT sequence, valence and electronic configuration are placed in secondary-stage chemistry, well after chemical change has been met as an observable event. |
Write the chemical equations in symbolic form and ask students to observe | At the symbolic mode. In Bruner’s enactive → iconic → symbolic progression the symbolic mode is reached last, so it cannot open the topic. |
Define a chemical reaction and give examples | At the general statement — the expository, rule-then-example route, in which the definition reaches the learner before any experience that would give it meaning. |
Hold a discussion on chemical reactions which students are likely to have observed in their lives | At the learners’ own concrete experience, from which the definition, the equation and the electron-level explanation can then be built. |
Result: begin from the learners’ own everyday observations of chemical change, and let the definition, the equation and the electron-level explanation follow from there.