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Filling a curriculum gap in chemistry

Article in International Journal of Science Education March 1995
DOI: 10.1080/0950069950170206

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Filling a curriculum gap in chemistry

A. H. Johnstone a; F. F. Al-Naeme a
a
Centre for Science Education, University of Glasgow, UK

To cite this Article Johnstone, A. H. and Al-Naeme, F. F.(1995) 'Filling a curriculum gap in chemistry', International

Journal of Science Education, 17: 2, 219 232

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INT. J. Sci. EDUC., 1995, VOL. 17, NO. 2, 219-232

Filling a curriculum gap in chemistry

Downloaded By: [University of Glasgow] At: 10:54 17 December 2009

A. H. Johnstone and F. F. Al-Naeme, Centre for Science Education,

University of Glasgow, UK
In most science courses at secondary level, the teaching methods used are not tailored to present
different approaches to meet the individual differences in pupils' learning styles or motivation. Much in
the detailed objectives, and blow-by-blow worksheet approach, will appeal to the conscientious pupil but
may turn off the more creative and curious pupil.
Mini-projects (problem solving at the bench) were used as a vehicle to motivate the curious pupils.
Correlations of factors such as convergence/divergence, field-dependence/field-independence and motivational traits with 'success' in mini-projects are set out in this paper. The evidence indicates that those
who do best in practical problem solving of the mini-project type are the curious, field-independent and
divergent pupils. However, all categories of pupils were stimulated to varying degrees by the projects.

Introduction
For many years educationists have been pointing out that there are diverse learning
styles and motivations (Kempa 1990) among learners which should be taken into
account when designing curricula or courses or individual lessons. There have been
some attempts to address this by means of individualized learning but, in general,
groups of learners are taught as if they were homogeneous samples for processing.
Teachers know that their learners are not homogeneous, but pressures (largely
logistical in nature) drive them to use the same methods for all. Even so-called
'individualized learning' tends not to treat individuals in different ways, but treats
them individually in the same way.
Some years ago, after the introduction of Standard Grade Chemistry (Scottish
Certificate of Education 1988) into Scottish Secondary schools for \A 16-year-olds,
it occurred to the authors that a partial solution to the problem would be to ensure
that in the chemistry course there should be a blend of methodologies, some
combinations of which would appeal to each pupil.
Examination of the published syllabuses and support material revealed that
different activities were being recommended and their delivery was to be partly by
group teaching and partly by individualized learning. Traditional didactic teaching
was blended with set laboratory work and skills training, problem solving on paper
and discussion material about industrial and economic issues. There was a stated
intention to incorporate problem solving at the bench, but no clear plans were given
as to how this might be done.
It was to fill this gap that a development study was set up (Hadden 1991) to
produce a large number of workable bench problems (mini-projects) and to evaluate them. Following, but overlapping this development, a research programme was
set up to probe the underlying educational and psychological factors (Johnstone and
Al-Naeme 1991) to ascertain whether the mini-projects were, in fact, catering
adequately for the range of learning and motivational styles of the pupils.
0950-0693/95 $1000 1995 Taylor & Francis Ltd.

Downloaded By: [University of Glasgow] At: 10:54 17 December 2009

220

RESEARCH REPORTS

Mini-projects were designed to stimulate individual thought and creativity, to

be solvable by several methods and to allow for more than one 'correct answer'. The
psychological factors which might be expected to interact with the mini-projects
would be those related to the separation of relevant from irrelevant information in
an open-ended situation; those requiring a degree of open-mindedness to explore
possibilities before deciding on a course of action and a motivational style which
would be comfortable with the unconventional and would find stimulus in freedom
from set procedures.
It was therefore decided to explore the interaction of mini-projects with pupils
of different degrees of field-dependence/independence; with pupils who exhibited
differences in convergent/divergent thinking and with pupils of different motivational styles involving, among others, curiosity and conscientiousness.
It might be reasonable to expect that pupils who were field-independent,
divergent and curious would be those most likely to enjoy mini-projects and to
perform well in them. Such open-ended situations would favour pupils who could
make decisions based on an open approach to the problem, who had the ability to
weigh up choices and eliminate distractions and who had the mental set which
enjoys a challenge. The nature of each of these factors and how they were measured
are set out below.
The nature of mini-projects
Problem solving at the bench is a different exercise from problem solving on paper
in that the practical situation 'speaks back'. It is possible, on paper, to pursue lines
of thought unconstrained by reality and to come up with a solution which seems to
be reasonable. On the other hand, in a practical situation, wrong lines of thought
become manifest and demand a change of tack. If reasoning anticipates a blue
solution and a black precipitate appears instead, the problem solver has to think
again.
In work done in this Centre some years ago (Newman and Johnstone 1977), a
'four unknown substance' problem was set to one half of the class on paper and to
the other half in a laboratory. Another 'four substance' problem was then done with
the former 'paper' group doing it practically and the former 'practical' group doing
it on paper. In general the practical groups had more success than the paper groups,
but when a comparison was made of individuals in their performances in the two
situations we found that three groups emerged: those who did significantly better
on paper than in practical; those who did better in practical than on paper and those
who did not differ significantly in their performance in either. This was a first
indication that these problem-solving situations might appeal to different pupils'
styles.
The decision to make mini-projects available for use in schools was intended to
offer strategies which might have a motivating influence on classes as a whole and,
at the same time, provide further motivation for potential practical problem solvers.
The shape of mini-projects
Since there was no provision for problem solving at the bench built into the
Standard Grade Course and since teachers were under pressure to get the new

Downloaded By: [University of Glasgow] At: 10:54 17 December 2009

FILLING A CURRICULUM GAP IN CHEMISTRY

221

course running smoothly, any large demand for time for an additional activity
would have been most unwelcome.
It was decided to design the mini-projects to fit the natural gaps which appear
in any individualized learning programme: e.g., the gaps between modules; the
need to occupy fast learners while slower ones catch up and the spaces near the end
of a teaching period.
They were written to fill periods of about half an hour and were designed to
support the existing curriculum with several projects for each syllabus section so
that teachers could allocate different problems to different pairs of pupils. These
have since been published as a book of 100 mini-projects (Hadden 1991) which fit
most chemistry courses for 1416-year-olds.
A typical page is shown (figure 1) to illustrate the layout and the procedures.
Pupils are first asked to read the problem carefully. They then produce a plan which
has to be approved by the teacher for safety. Teachers should allow any safe plan
to proceed since the pupils will find out by their mistakes if they have taken an
unproductive route and then think again.
After approval, or rethink if necessary, pupils tackle the problem and record
their method and conclusions on the reverse of the sheet. If a pair of pupils is not
confident enough to start planning, the teacher is there to encourage; if they have
no idea how to start the teacher can give hints.
The weakest pupils may need much help, but it is felt that all pupils should be
enabled to succeed in the end. After some experience of a few mini-projects, even
the weakest of pupils appear to make some attempts to help themselves and cease
to be completely dependent on their teachers; in fact hesitancy may not be the result
of inability only, but may result from abler pupils being asked to think for themselves for the first time in a practical situation.
The assessment of mini-projects
Since mini-projects were not part of the official course, no formal assessment was
envisaged for them, but for the purpose of this research some form of scoring was
necessary to use in later correlations with other factors which might contribute to
success in problem solving at the bench.
A scoring sheet was given to the observers (teachers and researchers) for making
this research assessment. It is not suggested that this should necessarily be the
assessment system to be used when problem solving at the bench is undertaken in
due course in Standard Grade (Al-Naeme 1991).
The sheets were designed to permit rapid observation and recording which
could be converted later into scores. An example of a sheet is shown in figure 2. The
six questions cover four aspects: getting started, the method, the result and report,
and the difficulty as perceived by the teacher.
In most schools the work was done with pairs of pupils and this raised a problem
for assessment, although problem solving in groups is highly desirable in practice.
For research purposes each pupil was judged separately on questions 1, 2 and 3
before the pair came together to make final plans for procedure. Question 4 had to
apply to both pupils together, but their independent reports were assessed in
question 5.
The principle of the assessment was to give each pupil a 'starter' of five points
to which others could be added (or subtracted) depending on performance. The

222

RESEARCH REPORTS

Name:

Class:

Project: 45

1. The problem: You have to find the best method for getting the coin out of the ice cube
without:
(a) breaking the ice;
(b) using a flame or hot plate;
(c) using your own body heat.
You have also to describe the best method you find.

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2. Your first plan:

Read what you have been asked to do carefully again.
Now write down here your FIRST PLAN for what you intend to do:

(If you have no ideas for a plan after you have thought as hard as you can, ask your teacher
for some help.)

3. Your apparatus:
Think carefully about the apparatus you think you will need to carry out your plan as an
experiment. Now write down here a list of the apparatus you think you will need:

Note: You may use any textbooks, data books or chemistry notes you think might help you.

4. Show your plan and your list of apparatus to your teacher before you start any
experiments.
(Your teacher will provide you with the apparatus.)
Now start your experiments. Use the other side of this page to write up your method,
observations, results and conclusions. (You should use diagrams or tables to illustrate your
results where possible.)

Figure 1. A typical page in the mini-projects book.

223

FILLING A CURRICULUM GAP IN CHEMISTRY

YES

Q1: Did the pupil have an initial workable plan?

NO

Q2: If NO,

1-1
Exp.

Fact.

r-3

Enco.

What kind of help was given? Mention the frequency

YES

NO

YES

NO

Q3: Did the pupil use a novel method?

Q4: Did the pupil need help again during his/her work?

F1
Exp.

Fact.

F2

F3

Enco.

What kind of help was given? Mention the frequency

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YES

NO

Q5: Did the pupil obtain a good result?

Easy

Fair

Difficult

Q6:What was the level of difficulty of the problem?

F1 = The experimental help frequency.
F2 = The factual help frequency.
F3 = The encouraging help frequency.

Figure 2. Assessment sheet used for mini-projects.

maximum score was 15 and the minimum zero. The quality of the plan, the
execution of the method and the reporting of results all obtained positive scores (or
zero), while assistance from the teacher 'cost' points depending on the quality and
frequency of such help. The scoring system is shown on the version of the score
sheet shown in figure 3. The scores for question 6 were a bonus given by teachers
for their estimate of the intrinsic difficulty of the problem in relation to what they
perceived as the state of knowledge and experience of their pupils.
Requests for help were classified in three categories, Experimental, Factual and
Encouraging. In question 2, at the critical planning stage, the deductions were more
'severe' than at the less critical stage in question 4 when the work was nearing its
conclusion.
These judgements were the final outcome of several different trial scoring
systems and were the ones which gave the most reliable results. The pupils were not
informed of the scoring scheme because they were not being assessed in any official
sense. The results were for research purposes only and were useful for later correlations with factors such as convergence and divergence, field-dependence and
independence, and motivational traits.

Learning characteristics and their interdependence

For this study the learning characteristics chosen were those which might have a
strong bearing on pupils' ability to cope with, and find congenial, the learning
experiences provided by mini-projects. During these projects pupils were being

224

RESEARCH REPORTS
Not bad Weak
+2
+1

Q1: Did the pupil have an initial workable plan?

YES

NO

Wronc
0

Q2:HNO,

Exp.

Fact.

Enco.

F1

F2

F3

-1

-1

-0-5

F1

F2

F3

-0-5

-0-5

-0-5

What kind of help was given? Mention the frequency

+1

YES

NO

YES

NO

Q3: Did the pupil use a novel method?

+2

Q4: Did the pupil need help again during his/her work?
Exp.

Fact.

Enco.

What kind of help was given? Mention the frequency

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Q5:Did the pupil obtain a good result?

Strong Not bad Weak

+ 1-5
4-1
+2

Q6:What was the level of difficulty of the problem?

Easy

YES

NO

Fair

Difficult

+ 1

+2

F1 = The experimental help frequency.

F2 = The factual help frequency.
F3 = The encouraging help frequency.

Figure 3. Marking scheme on the assessment sheet used for miniprojects.

encouraged towards independence from the teacher, reliance on their own
'chemical common sense', the relative insecurity of the possibility of several
methods and no 'right answer'. Most, if not all of their previous experience in
learning science had been teacher directed (if not teacher centred) and convergent
towards a correct (accepted) answer.
The mini-projects were likely to upset pupils' perception of a neat, noncontroversial subject area and to create some discomfort for the convergent, fielddependent pupil. It was hoped, however, that after the initial upset pupils would
become more accustomed to this style of learning and find it tolerable if not entirely
congenial. The study began by selecting, modifying and retesting materials which
would help us to characterize to some extent the pupils' preferred styles.
Field-dependence i'field-independence

Witkin (1974, 1978) suggests that depending on information held in long-term

memory, pupils filter out from the perceptual field that which they deem to be
important to a particular task. Field-independent pupils should be able to separate
the signal (what matters) from the noise (the incidental and peripheral) efficiently
(Johnstone and Al-Naeme 1991) so that their later processing and decision making
is not cluttered with irrelevant material. Field-dependent pupils will have difficulty
with this separation and would probably try to process confusing material. There
is, of course, a continuum between these two extremes and so, to make their work
possible, the sample was divided into three groups based on test scores; those

FILLING A CURRICULUM GAP IN CHEMISTRY

225

with scores greater than half of one standard deviation above the mean (fieldindependent); those between plus or minus half a standard deviation round the
mean (field-intermediate) and those whose scores were less than a half of one
standard deviation below the mean (field-dependent). The test used was one
devised and calibrated by El-Banna (1987) from Witkin's original test materials
(1974, 1978) using hidden figures.
Of the sample of 217 (1415-year-olds), 63 were categorized field-dependent, 73
field-intermediate and 81 field-independent.

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Convergence and divergence

This characteristic was studied because of its possible relationship to the free,
exploratory (even creative) thinking which pupils might be expected to use in
seeking for methods and solutions to the problems used in mini-projects. As was
mentioned earlier, much science teaching is convergent and pupils are rewarded for
convergent thinking leading to unique specific answers. In a mini-project situation
it could be argued that successful problem solvers would be those who were divergent to begin with, but who could converge to a 'best answer' when the time came.
Test materials were written based on the work of Getzels and Jackson (1962)
and Hudson (1966), but considerably modified and pretested (Al-Naeme 1991).
The convergent thinkers were those who did well in problems requiring
one conventionally acceptable solution clearly obtainable from the information
available. They scored less well in situations demanding the generation of several
solutions or of creative thinking. Divergent thinkers operated in the reverse way.
Again there must be a continuum between these two extremes, but for the purposes
of this research pupils were divided into two groups on either side of the mean
giving 111 pupils categorized as convergent and 106 as divergent.
A Pearson Product Moment Correlation between
field-dependence/fieldindependence scores and convergent/divergent scores yielded a low value of 0-16,
indicating that these two dimensions were fairly independent, but such correlation
as there was showed that, if anything, field-independent pupils tended to be
divergent thinkers and field-dependent pupils tended to be convergent thinkers.
Motivational styles
The measurement of motivation is very difficult because it is certain that few
individuals are driven by one simple homogeneous set of closely interrelated
factors. However, the work of Adar (1969) and of Hofstein and Kempa (1985) was
chosen as a useful model for the purposes of categorizing pupils into their main
motivational style, recognizing that there would be some overlap between styles.
Adar proposed four groupings: the achiever, the conscientious, the curious and the
social.
The achiever was one who had a distinct preference for an expository method
of teaching and learning; who enjoyed the challenge of competing with others
for top marks; who disliked being held back by slow learners.
The conscientious was one who also preferred an expository method of
teaching and learning; who felt secure only when given clear objectives
and precise instructions; who set out to please the teacher and to meet the

226

RESEARCH REPORTS

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expectations of the home; who was assiduous about examination preparation

and hard work.
The curious was one who preferred freedom in learning and discovering; who
enjoyed open-ended tasks and found rigid instructions irksome.
The social was one who was very sociable and group conscious; who preferred
to study with friends and to discuss problems; who was so involved in social
events that time for consistent studying tended to be limited and last-minute.
These four categories had emerged from a large factor analysis by Adar, but few
individuals would fit neatly and entirely into any one of these groups. It was
therefore anticipated that any test for these characteristics would yield overlaps,
with some pupils being mainly in one category but also with some pupils so well
spread as to be incapable of categorization.
Adar's test materials consisted of many statements which the respondents were
asked to rate on a five-point scale and clusters of response were sought. For this
study it was decided to simplify the test because of the fact that pupils were also
being subjected to other psychological tests at the same time. Constraints of time
and fatigue had to be borne in mind.
Various versions of a simplified motivation test were drawn up and tried out
on other groups (Su 1991) to test for reliability and for ease of administration.
The most successful version involved 16 statements, four for each category of
motivational style. Four learning situations were chosen and for each there was
one statement which would meet with the agreement of achievers, one for the
conscientious, one for the social and one for the curious. Each statement was
presented as a 'balloon' being spoken by a 'pupil picture' (figure 4).
The instructions given to the pupils were: 'please look at each row and decide
which ONE of the pupils has an opinion most like your own. Enter the name of that
pupil in the blank space in the last column.' This format was chosen to focus the
pupil on one simple situation at a time and to 'humanize' the choice by asking for
agreement with another person. Admittedly it was a forced agreement (i.e., 'opinion
most like your own') but that is not an unusual situation for pupils to find themselves in, in daily life.
The choices were then used to form categories in the following way. If a pupil's
four choices fell into the conscientious category there was no problem. A choice of
three conscientious and one other was still deemed to be conscientious (3:1). The
outer margin of conscientious was shown when the pupil chose two conscientious
responses and two others, each from different categories (2:1:1). Pupils who chose
equally from two categories (2:2) or from all four (1:1:1:1) were designated as
having no pattern. Similar analysis was carried out for all four motivational groups.
The results are given in table 1.
The pattern which emerged fits well with common experience. There can be
only a few achievers at the top of the class, while most pupils would be regarded as
conscientious. The social figure is not surprising when one considers the make-up
of a class of 15-year-olds.
Chemistry curricula in the UK appear to have materials in them which would
be motivating for the achiever and the conscientious with stated objectives, carefully structured work in the form of worksheets and frequent opportunities
for reassurance and assessment. For the social pupils, much discussion material
(Holman 1987) has become available to motivate them and give them opportunities

Downloaded By: [University of Glasgow] At: 10:54 17 December 2

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228

RESEARCH REPORTS

Table 1. Distribution of pupils in motivational groups.

Motivational
patterns

Distribution
(%)

Achiever
Conscientious
Curious
Social
Uncategorized

5
37
15
27
16

Groups

Achiever

Conscientious

Curious

Social

No pattern

Field-dependent
Field-independent

2
4

52
30

10
16

25
33

11
17

Table 3. Convergent/divergent against motivation expressed as percentage of each horizontal group.

Groups

Achiever

Conscientious

Curious

Social

No pattern

Convergent
Divergent

en oo

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Table 2. Field-dependent/field-independent against motivation expressed as percentage of each horizontal group.

41
30

12
18

22
31

23
13

to work and argue in groups. Could it be that mini-projects would provide a

stimulus for the curious pupils in particular and for the others to a lesser degree?
The three factors together

As was pointed out earlier, the convergence/divergence factor and the fielddependent/field-independent factor were substantially independent, but that
there was a small tendency for divergent pupils to be field-independent and for
convergent pupils to be field-dependent. If we now consider the interaction
between motivational and the other two factors, some patterns begin to emerge
(tables 2 and 3).
Conscientious pupils seem to have a tendency to be field-dependent and convergent, while social and curious pupils tend to be field-independent and divergent.
Achiever numbers are low, but they also tend towards divergence and fieldindependence.
Prediction of success in mini-projects
Earlier in this paper, a scoring system for the assessment of mini-projects was
set out and this was used to test the hypotheses which were raised on the basis of
the psychological measurements. It might be predicted that pupils who were fieldindependent and divergent in their thinking would be better equipped to tackle
tasks which demanded some creative problem-solving ability, some insights and

FILLING A CURRICULUM GAP IN CHEMISTRY

229

F.IND.

9.5

10.1

CON. - ^

^
7.5

DIV.

8.8

Downloaded By: [University of Glasgow] At: 10:54 17 December 2009

F.D.
Figure 5. Distribution of m e a n scores (out of 15) on mini-projects across
psychological factors.
Table 4. M e a n scores (out of 15) on mini-projects for e a c h motivational
group.
Motivational
group

Mean score
(115)

Achiever
Conscientious
Curious

11-5
8-2
106

Social

9.1

some willingness to be unconventional. Figure 5 shows the mean scores on miniprojects for four categories.
Scores on the field-independent side were superior to those on the field-dependent side; scores on the divergent side were better than those on the convergent
side. Of these two factors the field-dependent/field-independent was the stronger.
The highest scores were in fact attained by the field-independent/divergent pupils
and the lowest by the field-dependent/convergent pupils, suggesting that the
positive factors are field-independence and divergence.
The motivational grouping might suggest that the highest mean scores on miniprojects will be obtained by the curious and the achievers with lower scores for the
conscientious and perhaps the social. Table 4 shows the mean score pattern which
bears out that suggestion.
Table 5 illustrates the influence of the various factors on pupils' performance on
mini-projects. Predicted scores on mini-projects would be highest when all three
factors were positive (three arrows to the right); followed by two positive and one
negative factors (two arrows to the right and one to the left); followed by one
positive and two negative factors (one arrow to the right and two to the left).
Weakest scores would be found where there were three negative factors (all arrows
to the left). Table 6 shows the actual results, but achievers have been omitted since
the numbers in each cell have become too small to have meaning.
The trends which emerge from this analysis are clear. The highest mean scores
were obtained by the curious, field-independent and divergent pupils and the
lowest scores by the conscientious, field-dependent, convergent pupils. In any
vertical column the scores for the curious were superior throughout. In any

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RESEARCH REPORTS

Table 5. Proposed influence of various factors on mini-project scores.

Influence of mini-project
scores
Factors

Negative

Positive

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Field-dependence
Field-independence
Convergence
Divergence
Achiever
Conscientious
Curious
Social

Table 6. Mean scores (out of 15) on mini-projects for each motivational

group.
F.D.

F.D.

F.Ind.

F.Ind.

Various groups of

and Div

and Con.

and Div.

and Con.

Mean scores of
consc. pupils
in mini-projects

80

6-6

10-2

Mean scores of
curious pupils
in mini-projects

105

8-6

11-4

108

Mean scores of
social pupils
in mini-projects

horizontal row the combination of field-independence and divergence was strongest

while the field-dependent and convergent combination was weakest.
However, all performances in all of the cells in table 6 were far from disastrous.
In all categories, pupils gained marks over the initial 5, which all were given.
The mini-projects were within the compass of all the pupils, but were clearly
appealing to the curious pupils for whom provision in the normal curriculum was
lacking.
Conclusion
This piece of research set out to examine the provision within school chemistry
syllabuses of materials and methods which would motivate all pupils. There seemed
to be adequate materials for the conscientious and social students while the

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FILLING A CURRICULUM GAP IN CHEMISTRY

231

achievers had a chance to achieve in any situation. A lack of provision was noted for
the curious pupils and this was addressed by means of mini-projects.
It has been demonstrated that the mini-projects have indeed appealed to the
curious pupils to the greatest extent but that all groups have had a fair degree of
success. The authors believe that a curriculum gap in chemistry may now have been
filled but this leads to the wider consideration of the nature of other aspects of the
chemistry curriculum at all levels.
Although lip-service is paid to individual differences among learners, little is
done to allow for this. Pupils may be characterized as 'bright' or 'less gifted', but
these pupil labels may be as much a function of the learning and assessment
environment in which they find themselves as of some innate gift.
When schools were approached to participate in this research, certain pupils
were pointed out as being 'dull' or 'uncooperative' or 'unintelligent' with the
suggestion that they should be excluded from any work involving creativity. When
the researchers insisted on the inclusion of all pupils, they and the teachers were
pleasantly surprised to find many of these 'less able' pupils 'blossoming' when
presented with creative tasks to do at the bench. Given this change of environment,
the response of pupils changed, but not always for the better.
Some pupils who had been regarded as 'more able' appeared to be unhappy
about being exposed to creative demand and showed signs of insecurity and discomfort. Conscientious, convergent pupils in particular found the going hard and,
if the normal ambience of the chemistry class had been for creativity throughout,
these might have been rated as the less able.
Similar thinking must apply to all other aspects of the chemistry course and to
the assessment methods employed. Pupils who are provided with a learning and
assessment atmosphere which fits their learning and motivational styles are likely to
do well and the converse is equally probable.
In chemistry the potential exists for a wide variety of curricular experiences:
didactic teaching, self-paced work, worksheet-driven practical work, mini-projects,
problem solving on paper and at the bench, manual skills, human interest
discussion material, consumer science and much else besides. Unfortunately, this
range of possibilities is not fully used and there is a tendency to become locked into
a mixed-ability situation, managed by some form of individualized learning with
worksheets and assessed by fixed or limited response methods which reward
convergence. In this situation the field-dependent, convergent, conscientious pupil
is favoured and encouraged to remain in this style, whereas the field-independent,
divergent and curious pupil is likely to be disadvantaged or stifled into conformity.
The substance of this research has shown that a fairly modest change in learning
experience can help to meet the needs of a group of pupils who could easily be
neglected. It also indicates that there may be a need to take into account learning
and motivational styles when curricula are being designed, and not to allow them
to be driven solely by content and structure.
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FILLING A CURRICULUM GAP IN CHEMISTRY

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EL-BANNA,

Correspondence
Prof. A. H. Johnstone, Centre for Science Education, Department of Chemistry, University
of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ, Scotland.

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