A Study On The Core Concepts And The Conceptual Change Strategies Of Chemistry Curriculum In Singapore Middle School

In the process of education reform in 21st,around the world,especially the U.S.regards core concepts teaching as the focus of new science education reform.The PISA shows that Singapore has been the first of the world in 2015.Therefore,how does the teaching of core concepts promote in the middle school chemistry curriculum of Singapore?What inspirations can we obtain to solve the issue of chemistry core concepts teaching for China's education reform?What will be helpful to the new chemistry curriculum standard,the compilation of the textbook,the way of student evaluation and so on in China?All these issues are 'worth thinking and discussing deeply.As above,the main four issues to be solved in this study are:(1)What core concepts do require students to master in the syllabus of the Singapore middle school chemistry?And how deep should students master?(2)How are core concepts presented in the chemistry textbook of Singapore middle school?(3)How are core concepts examined in Singapore O-Level chemistry examination?(4)What are strategies of conceptual change of Singapore middle school chemistry curriculum?In order to solve the above four issues,this paper has studied the core concepts in chemistry curriculum of Singapore deeply,not only the O-Level and H1 syllabus,but also the mainstream chemistry textbook Chemistry Matters and O-Level chemistry examination.Discussed the outline of the status,structure and content of core concepts of Singapore O-Level and H1 chemistry curriculum,sorted out chemistry core concepts,analyzed core concepts in chemistry textbooks editing features,expounded the core concepts of O-Level evaluation of chemistry examination,and summed up the content of the strategies of conceptual change.As above,the conclusions are obtained as follows:(1)The syllabus of Singapore locates the position of the core concepts in the subject accurately.The core concepts run through the whole middle school chemistry curriculum in Singapore,and the syllabus determines the important position of the core concept in the chemistry.(2)The syllabus plays a guiding role in core concepts teaching.The science syllabus puts forward the core concept teaching based on scientific inquiry,including various conceptual change strategies,such as brainstorming,mind-mapping,concept map,model-building,and cooperative learning.(3)The arrangement of the core concepts in the chemistry textbook embodies its practicability and pragmaticality.The chemistry textbooks are guided by the curriculum syllabus and carry out the important position of core concepts in depth.(4)The chemistry examination of the Singapore middle school affirms the positive effect of the core concept on the learning.The Singapore O-Level examination focuses on the understanding and application of core concepts,especially for the core concepts in real situations,and fully confirms the important position of core concepts in chemistry learning.For our country,it gives the following enlightenment:for the future development of students,we should develop chemistry curriculum standard,highlight the core concept of the status in textbooks,and arrange the core concept in examination system.Chemistry educators should pay more attention to the teaching of core concepts.Finally,it is particularly important to strengthen the integrated construction of curriculum standards,textbooks,chemistry teaching and examination.