Chemistry curriculum

This is the sum total of all the planned and unplanned learning experiences learners are exposed
to in chemistry during their schooling life. These experiences may be viewed in three dimensions
or packages.
These total packages have been carefully divided into three segments viz: programme of studies;
programme of activities; and programme of guidance.
Programme of Studies
Programme of studies refers, once again, to the chemistry topics that the students are expected to
cover during the four-year secondary school cycle.
Programmes of Activities
The programme of activities is also a learning experience. Emeruwa (1985) defined it as “a
programme which embraces all the activities capable of enhancing the academic experiences of
students”. This programme is designed as a concomitant to the intellectual knowledge acquired
in the classroom. It is designed to enable learners see the practical applicability of what is learnt
in the classroom situation.
Programme of Guidance
A programme of guidance is better than a programme of studies (which tend to emphasize the
past), and a programme of activities (which emphasizes the present) because it cuts across the
time barriers. A programme of guidance recognizes the past …. of an individual, as well as the
present because the present is when the problem or crises occur, though it may have its roots in
the past. It then looks into the future so as to assist the students (clients) to become increasingly
able to face his own problems and to make his own decisions.
Three aspects of a programme of School Guidance are distinguishable.
They are:
· Vocational guidance- This is a service in which students are assisted to select vocations or
careers which are appropriate with respect to their individual personal characteristics and
interests. ;
· Educational guidance. The selection and choices of course study, especially at the Secondary
School Level, cannot be haphazardly done. Because educational guidance is concerned with the
overall growth and development of the school child, he is therefore guided in making appropriate
subject selection best suited to his intellect, interest, future educational goals and career
aspirations; and
· Personal-social guidance- is concerned with the development of a wholesome personality.
Youths and adolescents are in their developmental stages. They go through various experiences
at home, in, and out of school, which have implications for their behaviours.
General Principles of Curriculum Planning
Daramola (1995) suggests certain general principles of curriculum planning which seen to
incorporate all the models already discussed.
These general principles are as follows:
(i) Principle of Validity: The curriculum designed is as valid of it provides appropriate learning
experiences towards a set objectives and capable of effecting the desired change in the behaviour
patterns of the learner. In other words, the curriculum is valid when the learning experiences
provided is actually capable of achieving the objectives specified;
(ii) Principle of Comprehensiveness: This deals with the scope of learning experiences
provided. For example do the learning experiences lead to the acquisition of various skills; e.g.
intellectual skills, motor skills, social skills and aesthetic capabilities. In other words, the

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curriculum must not provide for intellectual development alone without catering for other aspects
of the learner; that is to say the cognitive, affective and psychomotor domains of educational
objectives must be taken into consideration.
(iii) Principle of Variety: Curriculum planners are urged to include varied and wide range of
experiences in the curriculum content. The experiences to which learners are exposed should be
diversified, not restricted to only on variety alone e.g. classroom teaching alone when field
experiences would offer a better variety.
(iv). Principle of Suitability: The point being made here is that the age and level of the
development of the learner must be taken into consideration so that learning experiences may not
be above or below their level of understanding. For example, what should be taught at Secondary
school level should not be taught at kindergarten classes and vice-versa;
(v) Principle of Relevance: The learning experiences selected must be suitably applicable to the
learners’ daily experiences.

Organisation of Curriculum
A further step towards achieving desired educational goals is to properly organize the curriculum
that has been selected. Learning is cumulative and a series of learning content, carefully
arranged or organised and presented in a series over time, is what will eventually bring about the
achievement of educational objectives.
Learning is change in behaviour over time. Changes in ways of thinking, habits and attitudes
develop relatively very slowly. This is why organisation of content is important so that one
experience reinforces another over a period of time until the goals are achieved.
In organising curriculum, two kinds of relationships have been identified: these are vertical and
horizontal relationships among subject matter. In the vertical relationship, consideration is
given to organising a particular subject matter according to level of difficulty between the years
of schooling such that what is learnt in one year serves as foundation for building upon what is
learnt in the second year, and so on, in the same subject.
The second method of organising curriculum is called horizontal relationship. This is
relationship among different subjects, programmes or courses and between the content and
delivery methods in such a way that the learner can see the link between the school learning and
the community, the home or community realities. The concept of horizontal curriculum
organization rests upon three main arguments:
(i) That, according to Derrey (1916), life provides the basis for learning, that life processes and
experiences are sources of learning, which are at least as important as schools and should
therefore be integrated into formal school learning opportunities;
(ii) That schooling is no longer an end in itself, but an aid to living with living being seen as
involving all aspects of life where learning occurs; recreational activities, relationships with
other people and social institutions, and so on;
(iii) School subjects, programmes and courses should be organised in such a way that the
relationship between one subject and another (e.g. between Chemistry and Biology; Physics and
Mathematics; Geography and History, etc.) becomes apparent and reinforces one another in the
interest of community realities, attitudes, skills, knowledge, etc. needed to live effectively in
the community where one finds himself.

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Criteria for Organising Curriculum
Continuity
Continuity is an aspect of vertical relationship. It describes the repeated presentation of
learning material so that the cumulative effect of learning the material helps the learners to
master the concept or develop the attitude, or acquire the skill that has been specified in the
educational objectives. Again, it arises from the principle that learning develops slowly over time
and the repeated (or continuous) presentation of same learning experience at different levels of
the educational programme will help to achieve the stated goals of education.
Sequence
This is another aspect of the vertical relationship. It refers to the practice of arranging both the
content and material into a kind of order of succession. In other words, as in “continuity”, the
curriculum material is repeated again and again, but this time, at higher levels of difficulty and
complexity than previous ones. This facilitates more mature learning.
Sequence, as a criteria, is therefore, important because not only is there continuity in what is
being learnt, but there is also a progression that makes the learner acquire higher levels of
competence. The emphasis of sequence therefore, is not on continuity but on higher levels of
treatment of the successive learning experiences. This is the criteria, which emphasizes the
sequential arrangement of subject matter according to the principle of simple to complex,
known to unknown, concrete to abstract and so on.
Integration
Integration is a criterion, which describes the horizontal relationship among subject areas.
Horizontal relationship, is important to avoid compartmentalization of knowledge. In other
words, horizontal relationships among subject areas help learners to see how what is learnt is
related to solving problems (for example), in real life (Unity) and not just an isolated set of facts.

ORIGIN OF CHEMISTRY
The origin of chemistry may be traced to the Greek philosophers through the alchemist and
Dalton’s Atomic theory. The evolution of chemistry is thus based on the following stages.

Metallurgy Age
The early man’s activities that are closely related to chemistry were simply skills of extracting
metals and crafting them into either tools or for aesthetic purpose.
This was in Egypt, Greece, Italy, Mesopotamia (Iraq) China, India & Africa.
The use of metals was not known to early man and therefore their implements were made of
stones (Stone Age), bones, horns and wood.
The first metals that were known included: Gold, Silver, Copper, Iron, Tin, Lead, Mercury,
Sodium and Potassium.
These metals were mainly used for three purposes.
1. Decorative
Those metals used for this purposes were Gold – Jewellery, silver- jewellery, containers (vases):
copper – vases and necklace
2. Service Metal
These are iron-working tools, Tin – joining metals, solders, lead –joining metals, soldiers, and
mercury –Extraction of gold.
3. Medicinal
These included potassium and sodium that were used as medicines or food additive.

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The term chemistry developed from the Greek philosopher Suidas who used ‘Chemeia’ the term
‘Egyptian art’ with the conquest of North Africa and southern Europe the Egyptian art spread to
Europe and Asia. The Southern Europe changed Chemia to Alchemy. The term Alchemy
evolved in Europe and in the 19th century it changed to chemistry.

The founding language of chemistry was Latin and this has an influence in chemistry up to
today. This is in terms of use of Latin names and terms in chemistry. The Latin names are used
for various elements and symbols in chemistry.
Such names, terms used in Latin or Greek are often referred to as root names or terms
The chemical name ‘Natrium’ is a root name for sodium. Chromatography is a root term. The
root names are chroma- color and –graph –picture. The terms refer to separation process by use
of colors.
The use of root words and terms makes teaching of concepts easy for the learners. The use of
Latin words in derivation of symbols should be emphasized so as to enable learners to the link
and group them easily. This in turn helps in clearing any misconceptions.

CHEMICAL NAMES, SYMBOLS AND FORMULAE

Symbols have been in use since the metallurgy age as the short form of communication. The
Greeks derived symbols for metals from planets as sun=gold, Moon= silver, Saturn= Lead,
Mars=Iron, Venus=Copper.

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The use of the symbols showed the relationship between chemistry and Astronomy.
Dalton changed these symbols from planetary to geometrical symbols.

By use of the geometric symbols it was possible to write formulae for compounds and chemical
equations. E.g.

The geometric symbols evolved to modern letter symbols i.e. C-carbon, O-oxygen, S-sulphur
There are more than 26 known elements (103) and therefore it was necessary to use the 1st two
letters or 1st and 3rd letters for symbols in special cases Latin names are used to derive symbols.

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REFLECTION
1. Chemistry is progressive/ dynamic discipline. Chemistry is a growing or developing
subject.
This is through research and other sources. The developments are evident in terms of units,
nomenclature and resources used in chemistry. E.g calorie------joule, normality------molarity,
Ml-----CM3
These are harmonized by SI as approved by weights and measures and IUPAC.
Nomenclature has developed in the naming of substances such as:
Carbon dioxide-------Carbon IV Oxide
Acetic acid-----Ethanoic acid
Ethanaldehyde--------Ethanal
The current naming uses IUPAC rules
2. Chemistry is as a result of a contribution of many cultures. Its evolution is from
different cultures such as: Egypt, Greek, Italians, English, German, Russia, Asia,
America and Japan. This is evident from names of some elements and terms. The root
of Latin, Greek or Arabic.
3. Chemists are humanistic. The early chemists worked for long hours with most
discoveries coming after long periods of experimentation and self-denial. Thus
anything useful comes after long and hard work.
4. Chemistry is practical oriented. Chemistry has right from its origin been associated
with practical concerns to solve problems. The whole purpose and contribution has
been in the fields of environment, food, medicine and making tools.

SCIENCE EDUCATION
This is an intellectual discipline for the promotion of the disciplinary goals of natural sciences in
the pursuit of the professional goals of education.
The professional goals of education are varied ranging from social where the focus is on the
social, political and economic elements of life: to personal with the focus on the student as a
person in his development interests and talents both physiologically, aesthetic and metaphysical:
to intellectual with the focus of the student knowledge and thinking in terms of gathering
information and processing it.
Therefore, Education should help the learner in person to become the best he/she is capable of
becoming.
An individual on the other hand is exposed to natural phenomena experiences. These are many
and varied from biological to physical. These experiences are either directly accessible to senses
while others are accessible to senses through medication process involving directly perceptible
experiences. The systematic study of phenomena (natural) is the domain of natural sciences.
Natural science has got both disciplinary and professional goals. The disciplinary goals are the
ones interests to the educationist. The disciplinary goals of science are grounded in the historical
and philosophical perspectives as their salient features are explicated. The histological
foundation/ evolution of scientific concepts is ultimately founded on the desire to know the
essence of physical reality, explanation of casual mechanism for natural phenomena systematic

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development of theory: falsification or verification of theory e.t.c.
Thus the disciplinary goals of science are two fold, empirical investigations and theoretical
formulation and integration.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF TEACHING CHEMISTRY

An aim in education may be defined as: a general statement of what you hope the subject or
course will achieve expressed in terms of what the teacher will be presenting to the learner.
Aims are usually used at higher levels of curriculum development. They are normally used at the
introduction of a subject syllabus.

PURPOSE OF AIM
-They assist in conception of the broad outcome of the subject before the specifics.
-They provide the emphasis or the key areas of the subject
-They provide the basis for justifying our objectives.
-They give an indication of the teaching methods and resources to select.
During instruction each aim is broken down into smaller aims which are attainable in a
classroom lesson or laboratory practical.
These small aims that are clearer and easily achievable are behavioural and are commonly
referred to as instructional objectives.
Aims of chemistry may be considered global but are however domesticated to suit the individual
countries.
Most aims are derived from societal needs that are varied from one society to another. This
diversity leads to different emphasis in its needs with regard to different emphasis in its needs
with regard to chemical knowledge.
The chemistry syllabus in Kenya gives the following aims of teaching the subject.
These include:
a) Help the learner to acquire chemical knowledge that helps understand the order of physical
environment.
b) Make the learner to be aware of the chemistry knowledge and its application to real life
(everyday life).
c) Enable learner to attain problem solving skills
d) Enable learner to appreciate the responsibility of a chemist to the society.
e) Prepare learner for further studies /training in chemistry related areas.

For aims to be complete they must accommodate the four domains of knowledge i.e
Cognitive --- (a)
Psychomotor (manipulative skills) ----(c
Affective (linking, attribute, enjoyment, motivation) --- (b) (e)
Social (effect on people, environment and ethics)----(d)
OBJECTIVES
There are two different categories of objective
General objectives
This unlike aims are more specific but however long term in nature for example what should be
attained by the end of the term of the year.
Specific/instructional objectives
These are statements that describe a desired student outcome of instruction in terms of

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observable performance under given conditions. The desired and intended behaviors are
expressed from the students’ point of view.

CHARACTERISTICS OF GOOD OBJECTIVES

Specific
It should tell exactly what should happen during the lesson
Measurable (observable)
Should be objectively be measurable or observable to determine the outcome of the
lesson.
Achievable
It should be achievable or attainable
Realistic
It should be realistic given the available resource and other conditions
Time bound
It should provide the time/duration of time that it will take to achieve the desired change this
may be either 40min or 80mins.

These characteristics are summarized as ‘SMART’ model

ROLE OF OBJECTIVES IN TEACHING

a) They establish a clear direction for a lesson by serving as a stimulus for thinking clearly
about the contents.
b) They compel the teacher to plan on terms of the learner by concentrating on the
capability of the learner is to develop
c) They by implication suggest appropriate learner activities, method and resources which
are likely to lead to achievement of the content.
d) Provide a basis for determining how successful the learning process has been.

STATING INSTRUCTIONAL OBJECTIVES

Use of the stem
This is the root of the objective which is normally “By the end of the lesson the student should
be able to ------”
Use of the action verb
Simple active verbs should be used which are observable or performance based. Avoid use of
non-observable verbs such as know, understand, etc. The verbs that one may use for various
levels of learning / Domains of the learning.
NB copies for taxonomies p34 - p39
Level of performance
Sometimes it may be necessary to state the level of performance e.g. degree of accuracy
Indication of conditions
It may be necessary to indicate the conditions under which the behaviour will be expected to
occur.
Behavioral
They should be indicative of the behaviour change espoused after during learning process