Try one of these teaching approaches to help learners build understanding, skills and confidence in chemistry
Teaching chemistry in today’s classrooms requires far more than delivering content; it calls for approaches that help students make sense of abstract ideas, develop practical skills and connect chemical concepts to the world around them.
As curriculums evolve and expectations for scientific literacy continue to rise, teachers have a growing range of pedagogical models at their disposal. From structured, teacher-led explanations to open-ended investigations and project-based applications, each approach offers distinct advantages for shaping how students learn.
This article explores some widely used teaching approaches: direct interactive teaching, enquiry-based learning, project-based learning and the flipped classroom, considering how each can support meaningful learning in chemistry. By examining their principles, strengths and classroom implications, the goal is to help educators make informed choices about how and when these methods can be employed to enrich students’ understanding of chemistry.
As curriculums evolve and expectations for scientific literacy continue to rise, teachers have a growing range of pedagogical models at their disposal. From structured, teacher-led explanations to open-ended investigations and project-based applications, each approach offers distinct advantages for shaping how students learn.
This article explores some widely used teaching approaches: direct interactive teaching, enquiry-based learning, project-based learning and the flipped classroom, considering how each can support meaningful learning in chemistry. By examining their principles, strengths and classroom implications, the goal is to help educators make informed choices about how and when these methods can be employed to enrich students’ understanding of chemistry.
Guiding principles and theories
Guiding principles
No matter which teaching strategy is used, it’s important to remember some key principles. Constructivism is a learning theory that emphasises that students aren’t passive recipients of information. Instead, they actively construct knowledge based on their prior learning and experiences – though note that this doesn’t mean students construct their own understandings via discovering new knowledge in minimally-guided classroom activities.
Meaningful learning leads to a deep understanding when new information is integrated into prior knowledge to give it a new meaning. Most importantly, accounting for the limitations of working memory allows us to ensure we don’t over-burden our students with too much new content at the same time and hinder their learning.
How do the approaches work?
Direct interactive teaching is an instructional approach where the teacher leads students through new content in a clear, step‑by‑step manner while frequently checking for understanding and engaging students in active participation. This can be very stimulating, allowing teachers to infuse their lessons with passion for the subject and build students’ enthusiasm. It’s particularly effective when introducing a new concept or skill, allowing the teacher to better manage attention and cognitive load.
Enquiry-based learning is a teaching approach where students investigate a question, problem or scenario. This approach encourages students to do their own research and can involve carrying out activities to discover a solution while gaining or embedding new knowledge, understanding or skills.
Project-based learning is similar to the enquiry approach, but there are some subtle differences. Like enquiry-based learning, project-based learning can incorporate practical activities to develop skills in data collection, analysis and presentation. However, in project-based learning, students create a final product or presentation.
A flipped classroom approach essentially flips the traditional homework and classroom activities. Students learn new content at home through videos or reading, then engage in interactive activities in class relating to their home studies, such as answering problems, discussions, or projects.
How do they work?
Direct interactive teaching is an instructional approach where the teacher leads students through new content in a clear, step‑by‑step manner while frequently checking for understanding and engaging students in active participation. This can be very stimulating, allowing teachers to infuse their lessons with passion for the subject and build students’ enthusiasm. It’s particularly effective when introducing a new concept or skill, allowing the teacher to better manage attention and cognitive load.
Enquiry-based learning is a teaching approach where students investigate a question, problem or scenario. This approach encourages students to do their own research and can involve carrying out activities to discover a solution while gaining or embedding new knowledge, understanding or skills.
Project-based learning is similar to the enquiry approach, but there are some subtle differences. Like enquiry-based learning, project-based learning can incorporate practical activities to develop skills in data collection, analysis and presentation. However, in project-based learning, students create a final product or presentation.
A flipped classroom approach essentially flips the traditional homework and classroom activities. Students learn new content at home through videos or reading, then engage in interactive activities in class relating to their home studies, such as answering problems, discussions, or projects.
What does this look like in practice?
What does this look like?
When using direct interactive teaching or instruction, it’s essential to provide high-quality explanations of chemical concepts or procedures. You can enhance them using worked examples, demonstrating how to carry out a practical skill or exemplifying how to structure a piece of scientific writing.
Daniel Ojjeh, chemistry consultant with the Harris Federation, says, ‘Direct instruction is one of the most important approaches for any teacher to incorporate. Initial concrete examples can soon be faded away into more abstract applications, creating students who have more agile knowledge.
‘For example, when teaching free radical substitution, there is very little prior knowledge to activate and a minefield of misconceptions. I start by providing concrete models using molymods under the visualiser (you can quite easily embed cameos in your slides that link to your visualiser) and fade this into a virtual diagram. I avoid videos wherever possible and make myself the presenter. Then I make this more abstract and provide worked-example problem pairs of mechanisms. Students can lean on the scaffold I have created to complete a very similar question, gradually working towards more challenging tasks.’
Teaching tip
Remember, the approach you choose should be based on what you want your students to learn – there’s no one size fits all approach. For example, when introducing students to a new concept, you are likely to use direct interactive teaching.
Once students have gained a foundational understanding of the topic, you may then choose to extend and embed learning (while also developing interpersonal and communication skills) using enquiry-based or project-based learning.
You can develop your knowledge of different teaching approaches, as well as other aspects of your teaching practice, via the RSC’s effective pedagogy self-led CPD course.
Zoe Thorn, chemistry teacher at Long Road Sixth Form College, says, ‘Using direct interactive teaching allows me to highlight the key points that I want students to focus on and allows me to identify any misconceptions at an early stage.’ When using an enquiry-based learning approach, students might engage in a practical activity, gather and present data, then form a conclusion from their findings. Enquiry-based learning can also be used to explore the relationship between variables, such as investigating the relationship between temperature and reaction rate. This teaching approach works best when students have the required prior knowledge (which could have been obtained via direct interactive teaching) to understand and use the data being collected as part of the enquiry.
An example of a project-based learning approach could be exploring a big question such as ‘How can we reduce the impact of climate change?’. Students could engage in activities to extend their knowledge and understanding of the issue as they work towards answering the core question, culminating in a final product to display their learning. Again, this often is preceded by direct interactive teaching.
For the flipped classroom approach to be successful, all students need to have access to the home learning materials and take on the responsibility of completing the home learning activities. There’s also the danger of students embedding misunderstandings when learning new content at home on their own. Having contact with home to explain the approach that you are taking can help get support to ensure students complete their home learning tasks.
Simon Colebrooke, chemistry teacher at Long Road Sixth Form College, says, ‘We use the flipped classroom approach with our A-level students, who carry out activities to check prior knowledge and work through teaser activities before their chemistry lessons.’
Kerrin McGlashan-Panozzo, chemistry teacher at Prescott College Southern, says, ‘The flipped classroom approach can free class time for more engaging activities.’
Research evidence
There are many empirical studies and findings in psychology research that back up the use of direct interactive teaching for helping students come to grips with new knowledge and skills. In the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) Special educational needs in mainstream schools guidance report, explicit instruction is listed as a teaching approach that is beneficial. De Jong et al have written about the benefits of enquiry-based learning when coupled with direct interactive teaching. Nurhidayah et al carried out a literature review into the use of project-based learning and found that, with the correct support from a teacher, it can increase engagement and learning.
Md Desa and Abd Halim carried out a review of the use of the flipped classroom approach and found it has the potential to increase student motivation, learning engagement, peer interactions and knowledge. However, they warned about issues of students lacking motivation to complete activities at home, alongside the time it can take to prepare activities for learning at home.
Research evidence
There are many empirical studies and findings in psychology research that back up the use of direct interactive teaching for helping students come to grips with new knowledge and skills. In the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) Special educational needs in mainstream schools guidance report, explicit instruction is listed as a teaching approach that is beneficial (bit.ly/41ETCDE). De Jong et al have written about the benefits of enquiry-based learning when coupled with direct interactive teaching. Nurhidayah et al carried out a literature review into the use of project-based learning and found that, with the correct support from a teacher, it can increase engagement and learning.
Md Desa and Abd Halim carried out a review of the use of the flipped classroom approach and found it has the potential to increase student motivation, learning engagement, peer interactions and knowledge. However, they warned about issues of students lacking motivation to complete activities at home, alongside the time it can take to prepare activities for learning at home (bit.ly/4sGgpKr).
In the classroom
Remember, the approach you choose should be based on what you want your students to learn – there’s no one size fits all approach. For example, when introducing students to a new concept, you are likely to use direct interactive teaching. Once students have gained a foundational understanding of the topic, you may then choose to extend and embed learning (while also developing interpersonal and communication skills) using enquiry-based or project-based learning. You can develop your knowledge of different teaching approaches, as well as other aspects of your teaching practice, via the RSC’s effective pedagogy self-led CPD course (bit.ly/4cJ0Exo).
Colin McGill is an associate professor in education on the PGDE programmes at Edinburgh Napier University.
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