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2007
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In the Classroom
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A New Perspective on the Structure of Chemistry as a Basis for the Undergraduate Curriculum
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Martin J. Goedhart
Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands
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June 2007
Vol. 84 No. 6
p. 971
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| Abstract |
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Until the 1960s undergraduate chemistry curricula at colleges and universities were generally divided into courses of the five classical sub-disciplines: organic chemistry, inorganic chemistry, analytical chemistry, physical chemistry, and later, biochemistry. This division into five sub-disciplines reflected the view of chemistry as a science during that period. During the 1970s, new fields (e.g., organometallic chemistry, solid-state chemistry, environmental chemistry, polymer chemistry, bioorganic chemistry) were developed and this led to doubts about the adequacy of the classical curriculum. Since the 1970s, other developments have influenced the undergraduate curriculum, yet these hardly affected its core.
As a result of our research into student learning in laboratory courses we concluded that students experienced problems in relating the procedures they used in the lab to the chemistry context of the experiments performed. Based on this research, we make a distinction between three context areas of chemistry and their related rationales: (i) Analysis, in which students acquire information about the composition and structure of substances and mixtures; (ii) Synthesis, in which students make products with specified properties; and (iii) Theory development, in which students develop and validate scientific explanations of the properties of substances and reactions. We argue that a division of chemistry into these three context areas can be used to design a new curriculum.
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| More Information |
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Citation |
Goedhart, Martin J. J. Chem. Educ. 2007, 84, 971.
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Keywords |
Curriculum; First-Year Undergraduate / General
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History |
Created:
Last Updated: |
4/24/2007
5/2/2007
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| Home > JCE Print > Journal of Chemical Education > Issues >
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971
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