New Perspectives in Science Education

The Foundation Chemistry teaching and learning  material, which is composed of both learner and facilitator guides, was developed as a result of the re-curriculation from foundation programmes to extended national diploma programmes at the University of Johannesburg (UJ). Learner and facilitator guides, comprising of eleven teaching and learning sequences, were developed for each module in the extended diplomas, including the Foundation Chemistry module. Over a period of three years (2009 to 2012) these materials were updated annually as one of the quality assurance mechanisms of the Academic Development Centre (ADC). These revisions were based on lecturer feedback which was given during materials review meetings and on feedback from students studying the Foundation Chemistry module. This study discusses a review of the material that was done after the three year period. It was informed by a student evaluation conducted by the UJ’s teaching and module evaluation experts, the Centre for Professional Staff Development (CPASD) as well as by feedback from an interview with the lecturers who lectured Foundation Chemistry. A questionnaire was administered to ascertain the students’ perceptions of the Foundation Chemistry module. For the purposes of this review, those questions that focused on the learner material were identified and analysed to find out the trends of the students’ experiences. Most of the students’ responses showed that the learner material supported and facilitated learning and understanding of the content and it encouraged them to think critically. Furthermore, the assessment tasks in the material improved their problem-solving skills. However, students requested that more examples be included in the exercises and activities as well as the inclusion of more challenging and exam-type questions in the assessment tasks. During the interview, lecturers’ highlighted the need to align the outcomes in the teaching and learning sequences to the outcomes in the learning guide and then to rearrange some of the content accordingly. They suggested that where relevant, activities either be replaced or become contextualised in some of the teaching and learning sequences. Both lecturers and students requested that teaching and learning aids such as graphs, diagrams and tables also are included in the teaching and learning sequences. Finally, the study concludes with a discussion on how these changes have been implemented