Teaching Chemical Equilibrium with the JigsawTechnique

摘要

This study investigates the effect of cooperative learning(jigsaw) versusindividual learning methods on students' understanding of chemical equilibrium in afirst-year general chemistry course.This study was carried out in two different classes in thedepartment of primary science education during the 2005-2006 academic year.One of theclasses was randomly assigned as the non jigsaw group(control)and other as the jigsawgroup(cooperative).Students participating in the jigsaw group were divided into four"home groups" since the topic chemical equilibrium is divided into four subtopics(Modules A,B,C and D).Each of these home groups contained four students.The groupswere as follows:(1)Home Group A(HGA),representing the equilibrium state andquantitative aspects of equilibrium(Module A),(2)Home Group B (HGB),representing theequilibrium constant and relationships involving equilibrium constants(Module B),(3)Home Group C(HGC),representing Altering Equilibrium Conditions:Le Chatelier'sprinciple (Module C),and(4)Home Group D(HGD),representing calculations withequilibrium constants (ModuleD).The home groups then broke apart,like pieces of ajigsaw puzzle,and the students moved into jigsaw groups consisting of members from theother home groups who were assigned the same portion of the material.The jigsaw groupswere then in charge of teaching their specific subtopic to the rest of the students in theirlearning group. The main data collection tool was a Chemical Equilibrium AchievementTest(CEAT),which was applied to both the jigsaw and non jigsaw groups The resultsindicated that the jigsaw group was more successful than the non-jigsaw group(individuallearning method)