Development of high-order thinking skills in contextualized learning of green chemistry topics

Leading team

Dr. Yael Shwartz

Postdocs and students

Dadi Marom, PhD student

Summary

Integration of digital text in teaching and learning is already a common practice, and will be even more common in the near future. We investigate different aspects of reading digital texts: design principles – what are the advantages of digital texts over printed ones for chemistry learning; cognitive aspects: how can specific thinking skills be developed while reading digital scientific texts? Pedagogical aspects: enhancing students’ independent learning; Affective aspects: Do digital texts (with specific design principles) enhance students’ interest in chemistry learning?

In a current study, Mr. Dadi Marom, a phD student, supervised by Dr. Yael Shwartz, develops a digital unit, that deals with “Green-Chemistry”. It exposes the socio-scientific aspects of chemistry concepts that they learn in an obligatory unit (for majors) in chemistry studies. Mr. Marom investigates the development of the following skills: chemical representation, comparison and argumentation.