A Designed Teaching Sequence as a Tool to Improve Students’ Conceptual Understanding of the Conductivity in the Electrolytic Cell

This paper reports on a study to determine the efficacy of a teaching sequence following the Leeds model framework designed for a specific content of learning in electrochemistry. The design of the teaching draws upon theoretical insights into perspectives on learning and empirical studies to improve the teaching of this topic, specifically ‘Electrolytic Cell’. A case study involving two classes, the Experimental and Baseline classes was carried out for 16-year-old Malaysian upper secondary school students. Also, eight classes of similar age in eight different schools who served as convenience samples (reference groups) were selected in order to compare the differences on their conceptual understanding in a wider sample. The evaluation of students’ responses in one of the items in the post diagnostic test shows that there were significant differences in the experimental class students’ performances in comparison to the baseline class students and the convenience samples. The experimental class students who followed the designed teaching sequence demonstrated better conceptual scientific understanding regarding the roles of ions and electrons in the conductivity of the electrolytic cell.