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Communication Cite This: J. Chem. Educ. 2019, 96, 1273−1277
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Developing and Piloting Culturally Relevant Chemistry Pedagogy: Computer-Based VSEPR and Unit Cell Lesson Plans from Collaborative Exchange in East Africa Philip P. Rodenbough*,† and Majuto Clement Manyilizu‡ †
Arts & Humanities Division, New York University Abu Dhabi, P.O. Box 129188, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates College of Informatics and Virtual Education, The University of Dodoma, P.O. Box 490, Dodoma, Tanzania
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‡
ABSTRACT: Meeting the challenge of modern global chemistry education requires collaborations from many different actors. Here, we report the development of culturally relevant computer-based lessons on VSEPR and unit cells designed specifically for implementation in the unique environment of East African high schools. The lesson plans use software more commonly employed by materials science graduate students, here repurposed for the high school chemistry classroom. The lesson plans were successfully piloted in local schools, indicating their potential for wide impact. The complete lesson plans are provided for free. The careful design of the lessons based on specific environmental factors through multifaceted contributors suggests a model of collaboration that could be useful in many other contexts. KEYWORDS: High School/Introductory Chemistry, Curriculum, Collaborative/Cooperative Learning, Computer-Based Learning, Multimedia-Based Learning, VSEPR Theory, Inorganic Chemistry
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INTRODUCTION Although Africa (particularly sub-Saharan Africa) produces only a small fraction of the world’s scientific research, the scientific publication output rate is growing faster in Africa than in any other world region.1 There is an ongoing conversation regarding how to best guide the rapid growth of African science,2 but most agree that a foundational component of such development is the continuous improvement and modernization of science education, including chemistry education.3 Of course it is not as easy as wellmeaning external actors simply proposing innovations in chemistry education in Africa or for any other issue for that matter.4 Context matters.
Kenya. As such, computer literacy classes in high school are becoming increasingly irrelevant and unnecessary. To repurpose high school computer laboratories, the solution proposed by education officials in Kenya is to start using the laboratories to teach science content, lessons in physics, chemistry, and biology, on computers. The responsibility for developing such new lessons has fallen rather unceremoniously on practicing high school science teachers, few of which have the time or resources to develop completely new lessons to be delivered on computers. This is the recent state of affairs according to Kenyan high school science teachers who shared their perspective with us, and attempts to tackle these problems are in line with official government goals such as the STEM Model Schools intervention program.6 The context in Tanzania is in some ways similar. Tanzania recently launched their Policy of Education and Vocational Training of 2014, which identified different challenges affecting the quality of education on the national scale. Such challenges include lack of laboratories for science subjects, insufficient numbers of teachers particularly in science subjects and mathematics, and poor morale of some teachers due to poor teaching (and living) environments reflective of poor funding. Furthermore, the policy indicates problems such as poor utilization of ICT in education, poor mastering of learning and teaching languages, and curricula that do not reflect the
Secondary Chemistry Education in Kenya and Tanzania
With that in mind, we take a moment to explore the local context for chemistry education in Africa with focus on local curricula and environment, in Kenya and Tanzania in particular. In Kenya, high school computer laboratories are nearly universal there and have been for some time, and traditionally, they have been used for computer technology literacy purposes. Kenya has been particularly energetic in promoting technology in its public education system in recent years; beyond the long-standing high school computer laboratories, it has introduced initiatives to provide tablets to every elementary school student.5 Also, even without such official initiatives, Kenyan students are becoming more and more familiar with technology earlier and earlier in their lives, due to increasing globalization and increasing affluence in © 2019 American Chemical Society and Division of Chemical Education, Inc.
Received: December 7, 2018 Revised: May 4, 2019 Published: May 14, 2019 1273
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students would be learning.17 Indeed, chemistry (and science generally) that is community-specific is often advantageous over generic implementations.18 Examples from other studies include drawing from the personal day-to-day lives of students to create analogies to the functioning of a biological cell, and using a discussion of genetic predispositions of specific populations to motivate the study of DNA.19 The merits of culturally relevant pedagogy are being appreciated more and more in the chemistry community, and we wanted to take part in this movement. As such we sought to develop lessons specific to East African communities, specific not only in the appropriateness of their implementation but also in their content. A fuller and more detailed exploration of the merits of culturally relevant science education is available at other works.20−24
globally competitive scene in science. This description of the educational context is consistent with first-hand accounts from educators on the ground in Tanzania who shared their perspective with us. Thus, applications of practical science activities through computers could help address some of the problems that have been so officially identified. We note that a detailed and accurate description of the current situation is a prerequisite for suggestions for improvement, and this description of the state of affairs in secondary chemistry education in Kenya and Tanzania is an important part of the collaborative exchange upon which this project is built. Graduate Education in the Sciences in Africa
On a different branch of the educational tree is graduate education in science in Africa. Graduate students in materials science and chemistry often have exceptional expertise with advanced computational software related to their research.7 This is especially true in research environments such as Africa that may lack the appropriately extravagant financial resources to secure big-ticket analytical instrumentation. Indeed, the financial advantages of computational chemistry in particular (as opposed to other more experimental disciplines) have been noted by scholars of chemistry education in Africa.8 In addition to computational chemistry, bioinformatics is another largely computer-based discipline that is attracting growing attention and expertise in Africa.9−12 Additionally, there is JUAMI, an NSF program that brings African materials science students together with American counterparts to exchange and learn together, where topics of discussion are often computational in nature.7 Clearly there is a lot of technical scientific knowledge related to research on computers in universities in Africa.
Project Outline
Thus, the situation is as follows: there is a need and opportunity for constant chemistry education modernization in Africa, there is a particular technological need in Kenya and Tanzania, there is a wealth of relevant skills and knowledge concentrated in graduate student populations, there is a natural opportunity for collaboration, and there is an increasing interest in culturally relevant pedagogy. Our research question then becomes the following: Can we take advantage of all these factors to create relevant and impactful chemistry lesson plans for East Africa? As a multinational and diverse team, we attempted to create such lesson plans, and we evaluated their effectiveness in pilot field tests at Msalato Secondary School in Dodoma City, Tanzania. Our study here focused on evaluating the effectiveness of using virtual lab tools to teach chemistry, particularly topics related to chemical bonding and molecular structure. The implementation of the lesson plan calls only for free software: no expensive licenses, tedious registration, obscure materials, or bulky laboratory equipment required. The software is provided here in the links at the end of this paper.
Opportunity for Collaboration
Thus, there is a natural opportunity for collaboration: between high school science teachers who are in need of scientific educational content for computers, and materials science graduate students who have an abundance of such expertise. The genesis of such a project was formulated at JUAMI,7 a conference of materials science graduate students from the US and Africa, among which happened to be at least two former high school chemistry teachers. Thus, two materials science graduate students decided to develop high school chemistry lesson plans for delivery on computers in Kenya and Tanzania. Computer-based lesson plans for high school chemistry students are by no means new,13 but there is a need to develop their specific application to the unique environment of East Africa, especially with a mind toward widespread and free distribution.
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METHODS
In short, we identified a need for a specific kind of lesson plan (as described in the Introduction). We developed such lesson plans, and we tested our lesson plans in classrooms and found them to be effective. Now we are sharing our lesson plans with the chemistry education community here. We describe the development and pilot field testing of the lesson plans here in the Methods section. In terms of lesson plan development, the lesson plans would have to feature software that was relatively light-weight; many of the target computer laboratories had relatively old machines. The lesson plans would have to feature programs that could be installed and not rely on Internet access; many of the target computer laboratories did not have active Internet connections, although files and programs could be shared relatively easily by USB key among networks of high school teachers. Finally, the lesson plans would have to feature science content relevant to the East African context, so that we could fulfill our goal of creating culturally responsive pedagogy. It was decided to use Vesta, a free visualization program developed by JP Minerals.25 It was furthermore decided to use real crystallography data from the Open Crystallography Database.26 Two lesson plans (one on VSEPR models and one on unit cells) were developed using these resources. In short, we located good crystallography data for a handful of
Culturally Responsive Pedagogy
Teaching chemistry in difficult circumstances is, well, difficult.14 Observers have debated what it means to decolonialize science education in African contexts, but it probably starts with lessons that take cognizance of the societies in which they are located.15 Indeed, many agree that at least one aspect of the decolonialization process is anchoring the science curriculum in local experience.16 This is a point that we want to emphasize and take the time to explain here. Our mission was not simply to take chemistry lessons from the US and make them available to students in East Africa. Rather, our mission was to develop culturally responsive pedagogy: lesson plans that were relevant to the geographical context of who the students are and where 1274
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suitable example materials in the Open Crystallography Database. The example materials spanned the breadth of different possible VSEPR stuctures and unit cell types. We then packaged the data and made it easy to visualize in Vesta. The spherical visualizations in Vesta are very aesthetically pleasing. To add local context to our lesson plans, we included readings on local materials: a natural product and a mineral, both of whose chemistries were featured in the lesson plan as well. The first reading was a newspaper article from Voice of America: “Forest Plants in Kenya Grown for Traditional Medicines”. It detailed how plants with traditional medicine properties are starting to be cultivated domestically in Kenya. It mentioned Ocimum kilimandscharicum, a plant found in Kenyan rainforests, so our lesson plan featured the visualization of the camphor molecule which is a major component of the essential oil of the tree. The second reading highlighted the mineral tanzanite, a gemstone that is only found in Tanzania. Students able to visualize the atomic unit cell of the Tanzanite gemstone with the software program. The full lesson plans and all associated materials (including software packages, data sets, and student worksheets) are available as externally hosted additional material at the end of this manuscript. The lesson plans were piloted in Tanzania at Msalato Secondary School, in Dodoma City, Tanzania. There were 41 form-five students selected for the study; the students had not previously studied chemical bonding, molecular structure, VSEPR models, or unit cells. Students were divided into two groups. The 20 students in group A were subject to traditional chemistry lessons on the VSEPR model (standard lecture not detailed here), whereas the 21 students in group B were subject to the same traditional lessons plus the computer-based VSEPR lessons developed in this project. Both groups of students were given a standard test on the content material after the lessons. An example of a question on the test was the following: “Consider methane, ammonia, and water. Why do they have angles that are close but different?” We hoped that students who had experienced the computer visualization would be able to better answer such a question. The test was similar to other versions used previously by the teachers, although we did not compare results to previous years. After the content test, all students in both groups were exposed to the software, and a questionnaire was used to furthermore evaluate the success of the developed lesson plans.
Figure 1. Box plot of content test scores. Group A students were given a traditional lesson, whereas group B students were given a traditional lesson plus the developed technology-based lesson. Box whiskers represent 1.5 IQR. Squares refer to means, and × symbols represent maxima and minima.
experimental group spent studying the topic that explains the improved test scores. In any case, students were enthusiastic about the chemistry lessons on computers. Especially in a high school classroom setting, such enthusiasm in itself may be a meaningful victory. No students disagreed with any of the statements on the questionnaire (Table 2), and furthermore, when students were Table 2. Comparative Questionnaire Results by Statement Average Score, N = 41
Statements for Student Response The bonding concepts were well-illustrated using the software tool The structure of the molecules was easier understood using the software tool I could easily name and describe the molecular structure using the software tool I could properly see and measure the angle between molecules using the software tool I would recommend the teachers to use this software when teaching bonding concepts The lesson was more interesting using the software tool
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4.4 4.8 4.6 4.2 4.8 4.7
The scale has a range of 1−5, with 1 indicating “Strongly Disagree” and 5 indicating “Strongly Agree”.
a
RESULTS Students who participated in the lesson plan developed here scored better on tests than students who were not exposed to the lesson plan, as illustrated in Table 1 and Figure 1. The tests asked students to recall and analyze content from the lesson, and the improved achievement with students who worked on the computer lesson plans suggests that such lesson plans are useful classroom tools. We do note that alternative explanations may exist: perhaps it is not the lesson plan themselves, but just the extra time that students from the
asked whether they prefer computer-based lessons or traditional lessons, they unanimously chose computer-based lessons or both, with none preferring traditional lessons. We do note that there may be some cultural issues at play here (reluctance for students to disparage authority, for example), but we choose to interpret the results in the better light.
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DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION We were pleased to find that the developed lesson plans were well-received in classrooms in Tanzania. The software was successfully installed on computers; teachers were successfully able to deliver the lessons, and students were able to learn about chemistry more successfully than they might have otherwise. Furthermore, the learning experiences were met with universal enthusiasm from students. Informal feedback
Table 1. Comparison of Content Test Results Group (Lesson)
N
Average Scorea
A (traditional) B (traditional + computer)
20 21
53.9 65.2
a
Possible maximum for score is 100. 1275
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in African classrooms, and now that they are published here, they are completely free to reproduce, distribute, and modify, without limit, by educators in Kenya and Tanzania and elsewhere. We hope that this project may inspire other similar technology-based collaborations between researchers and teachers, in Africa and beyond.
from teachers indicated that the system was good, that students were engaged with the lesson on the computer (asking questions, etc.), and that students were able to make good drawings after having visualized the chemistry on the computer. We note that there are several limitations to our study. Our lesson plans contain many aspects: they are computer-based, they are culturally relevant, they are freely distributable and meant to be freely adoptable, etc. It would be impossible to simultaneous evaluate all aspects of our lesson plan. Instead, we have focused on the advantage of a computer-based lesson (our experimental group) versus a traditional lecture-delivered lesson (our negative control group). Although we are enthusiastic about the culturally relevant pedagogy aspect of our lesson plans, this was not the aspect of the lesson plans that was evaluated in our pilot field tests. Instead we rely on the context framed in the Introduction to justify our choice and our enthusiasm in that regard. This would certainly be an interesting area for future study, for example, with a negative control group that featured culturally unresponsive content. We also note that we were met with mixed success in another aspect of our lesson plans. We wanted to create materials that teachers could pick up and use without a handson training session, so that the materials could spread more freely (without teacher-training workshops). We were successful enough that the lessons were carried out, but we did receive teacher feedback about how some of the instructions and software program aspects were difficult to manage at first. To reiterate, these challenges were not so large as to be insurmountable, but apparently they did make for a nonideal first roll-out. It would be interesting and valuable to explore ways to mitigate this learning curve for teachers, especially by improving even further the quality of the readings and instructional materials. We note that the “collaborative exchange” referenced in the title of this work is actually multidimensional. In one dimension, we have collaboration between materials science researchers and high school science teachers. Advanced software tools that are primarily developed for materials science research are often at the cutting edge of modern technology, and it is important to create conduits for this technology to filter down into classrooms of young budding potential scientists. With only minimal repurposing, and a clear set of instructions, such software can be successfully implemented in classrooms, as we have shown both in this project and in previous similar projects.27 High school teachers gain access to new and exciting technology-based lessons, and materials science researchers gain an opportunity for community outreach which is often an important goal of higher education institutions. Such collaboration is important and impactful. The other dimension of the collaboration featured here is the international dimension: One of the leaders of this project was American (although mostly based internationally), and the other leaders were African (Kenyan and Tanzanian). Such collaborations are often nontrivial, as other authors have noted.28 The organic nature of this particular collaboration’s genesis illustrates the opportunities gained when bringing geographically disparate young researchers together in conferences such as JUAMI,7 as others have also demonstrated, for JUAMI29 and other programs.30 We furthermore note that this collaboration does not feature a one-sided exportation of resources from the US to Africa. The lesson plans were tested
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AUTHOR INFORMATION
Corresponding Author
*E-mail:
[email protected]. ORCID
Philip P. Rodenbough: 0000-0002-5544-7403 Notes
The authors declare no competing financial interest. Additional material including complete lesson plans and software for full implementation of described lessons is hosted at https://chemistryoncomputersineastafrica.blogspot.com/ and also at the AfricArXiv Preprint Server at https://osf.io/ preprints/africarxiv/.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS P.P.R. thanks JUAMI for selecting him as a 2016 fellow, National Science Foundation Grant DMR-1539724 for supporting JUAMI 2016, fellow JUAMI 2016 participant Agatha Wagutu for original development of the project idea, the Materials Research Society Foundation (MRSF) for seed funding for this project, New York University Abu Dhabi for administering the MRSF award, and the RISE program and in particular Sarah E. Rich for connecting him with M.C.M. P.P.R. also thanks Sibrina Collins for sharing encouragement and ideas during the peer-review process. M.C.M. would like to specially acknowledge members of Computational and Modeling Research Group (CMRP) at the University of Dodoma as well as chemistry teachers at Msalato Secondary School for supporting pilot field tests of the lesson plans.
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