Integrating Analogy into Scientific Modeling for Students’ Active Learning in Chemistry Education

Abstract

Although active learning places more responsibility and emphasizes the learners themselves, as compared to the traditional learning approach, teaching guidance is still essential in the active learning environment. In most chemistry classes, students are provided with limited opportunities to explore the atomic structures at the sub-microscopic level or participate in learning activities. To address these issues, an effective teaching approach enabling students’ active learning called “Analogy integrated Scientific Modeling” (AiSM) has been proposed with the aim of facilitating students’ learning of abstract chemistry concepts. This chapter introduces how AiSM approach is integrated into chemistry class and promotes students to understand the atomic structure. The chapter starts with a theoretical background, which consists of analogy in teaching the atomic structure, the scientific modeling, and the AiSM approach. Subsequently, two lesson exemplars illustrate how the analogy and the scientific modeling can get integrated into a chemistry class. Last, the initial results of a pilot study are discussed to demonstrate the effects and benefits of the AiSM approach on promoting students’ active learning in chemistry classes.