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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal – Vol. 10, No. 7
Publication Date: July 25, 2023
DOI:10.14738/assrj.107.14966
Wang, P., Xu, S., Xu, Y., & Tang, Y. (2023). The Application of Project-Based Teaching Based on Chinese Characteristics in High
School Chemistry. Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 10(7). 365-372.
Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom
The Application of Project-Based Teaching Based on Chinese
Characteristics in High School Chemistry
Pengyun Wang
College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering
Henan University, Kaifeng, China
Suyi Xu
Central Philippine University, lloilo, Philippines
Ying Xu
College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Henan University,
Kaifeng, China, Central Philippine University, lloilo, Philippines
Yanyan Tang
College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering
Henan University, Kaifeng, China
ABSTRACT
China's basic education has undergone several reforms, and the new round of
curriculum reform has vigorously promoted the policy of "core literacy" and
cultivating high-quality talents in all aspects. Project-based teaching is a teaching
mode that takes students as the main body and lets students practice in real
problem situations. It plays a very important role in promoting students' problem- solving ability, developing innovative consciousness and implementing "subject
core literacy". Based on Chinese characteristics, this paper takes "handmade
ancient soap making" as the project theme, disassembles the task, design the
teaching process, and briefly describes the application of Chinese project-based
teaching in high school chemistry practice teaching.
Keywords: project-based teaching, manual soap making, core literacy
Project-based teaching is a student-centered learning method, which guides students to actively
participate in the learning process in specific situations, achieves learning goals through
interactive sharing, [1], and enables students to acquire basic knowledge and skills, key abilities
and necessary characters to explore and solve problems in the process of real problem situation
practice. Its remarkable characteristics are: real problem-driveng, exploring problems in the
context, learning in the form of group cooperation, using various tools and resources to
promote problem solving, and producing results or products that can be shared openly.
Project-based teaching originated in the late 16th century when the European construction
industry was reformed. In 1918, Kilpatrick redefined "project-based teaching" [2]. In 2000, John
Thomas from the United States emphasized that the release of complex tasks is an important
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prerequisite for project-based. [3] Solomon, a senior expert in project-based learning from the
United States, made an analysis from the perspective of learning process in 2012 [4]. With the
rapid development of project-based learning, more and more foreign educational research
teams have applied project-based teaching mode to the teaching of basic disciplines, mainly
represented by chemistry and biology.
China began to study project-based learning in the late 1990s, and the initial project-based
learning mainly originated from vocational education. With the gradual development and
improvement of project-based learning in China's educational environment, the application
scope of this method has gradually expanded. The research on project-based learning in China
mainly focuses on combining the knowledge of related disciplines, selecting appropriate project
themes, and starting project practice after designing appropriate projects according to the
actual situation.
THE APPLICATION BASIS OF PROJECT-BASED TEACHING WITH CHINESE
CHARACTERISTICS
'China General High School Chemistry Curriculum Standards ( revised in 2020 ) ' [5]
emphasizes: The compilation of high school chemistry textbooks should pay attention to the
systematic and structured organization of subject content, pay attention to the overall design
of authentic scenarios, complex problems and diverse activities, and the transformation of
experimental inquiry and practical activities to promote the learning mode, so as to achieve the
goal of developing students' core literacy of chemistry.
In recent years, the study pressure of Chinese teenagers is relatively large, and there is a
phenomenon of "teaching and learning for exams" in school education. Some students have
poor psychological quality and lack of innovation consciousness and challenge spirit, which is
not conducive to the requirements of quality education and social development characterized
by cultivating innovation ability.
Project-based teaching can enable students to find out the essence of phenomena in learning
activities, form their own views, and gradually form a certain attitude and behavior, motivation,
interest, moral character, self-consciousness, world outlook and outlook on life.
The project-based teaching with Chinese characteristics [6] combines the goal of Chinese talent
training with the characteristics of middle school students' mental development. By allowing
each student to experience the process of solving problems, on the one hand, it can stimulate
their interest in learning, improve their enthusiasm and enhance their learning initiative, and
through the completion of tasks to achieve the collation of a large number of new knowledges,
so that knowledge understanding and memory of knowledge becomes easier, and the retention
time is longer, thereby improving the teaching rate. On the other hand, they can improve their
thinking ability, problem-solving and other abilities, and develop their core qualities.
THE METHODS AND STRATEGIES OF HIGH SCHOOL CHEMISTRY PROJECT-BASED
TEACHING DESIGN
Pre-Class Preparation Stage
Based on the characteristics of project-based teaching with Chinese characteristics, in the
teaching preparation stage, teachers conduct a comprehensive and systematic study of the
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Wang, P., Xu, S., Xu, Y., & Tang, Y. (2023). The Application of Project-Based Teaching Based on Chinese Characteristics in High School Chemistry.
Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 10(7). 365-372.
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/assrj.107.14966
"micro-project" taught, carefully study the curriculum standards of Chinese high school
chemistry, and organize corresponding teaching content. Chinese high school chemistry
teaching content should not only be related to the classroom content, but also take into account
the extracurricular content, which requires Chinese teachers to have high requirements, not
only professional theoretical knowledge, but also a certain ability to control the classroom.
Before carrying out project-based teaching, students are divided into groups according to the
principle of "inter-group homogeneity and intra-group heterogeneity", that is, group members
have certain differences and complementarity in in academic performance, expression ability
and hands-on operation ability, and the differences between groups are minimized so that each
group is at the same level and the fairness of the group is guaranteed.
Clarify the Theme of ' Micro Project:
The theme of the project generally comes from the hot issues in the society, the problems to be
solved around, social science issues, etc. "Knowledge can only have meaning in the context in
which it is produced and applied, and it must not be separated from the environment in which
it is located, and the best way to learn knowledge is in the context" [7]. Therefore, the topic
chosen by the teacher should be reasonable and well-founded. First of all, it is necessary to
create situations based on curriculum standards, teaching content and students' characteristics,
and propose inspiring questions according to their own teaching topics. Secondly, it is
necessary to combine students' interests and relate them to daily life, so that students can use
the knowledge and ability they have learned to solve problems they often encounter in real life.
Analysis of Learning Situation:
The analysis and accurate grasp of the learning situation is very helpful to the smooth
development of project-based teaching. It is not only necessary to consider the real situation of
students, but also to find suitable projects when selecting projects. Also pay attention to the
individual differences of students, each student's existing knowledge and experience and the
latest development area will be different to a certain extent, teachers should
pay attention to teach students according to their aptitude. Because "micro-projects" are at the
end of each chapter and have a certain generalization and sublimation effect on the content of
each chapter, there is a certain degree of difficulty and comprehensiveness, so the teacher's
requirements for students cannot be completely consistent, according to the specific situation
of students, they should formulate standards that are in line with their own development.
Classroom Teaching Stage
Change of Classroom Atmosphere:
In theproject-based teaching classroom with Chinese characteristics, students experience the
problem-solving process, communicate and discuss with the same group members, boldly
express their thoughts on the problems, and improve their communication, expression and
cooperation ability to a certain extent. The sense of classroom atmosphere has also greatly
improved, it is no longer a quiet listening class, but a new type of classroom with expressions
and questioning.
Change of Classroom Subject:
Socratic teaching method points out that in the teaching process, teachers should not directly
tell students knowledge, but let students take the initiative to think [8]. In recent years,
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China has been emphasizing the implementation of curriculum reform to return the initiative
to students in the classroom, but the specific implementation is not perfect. The new curriculum
standard of Chemistry in Chinese high school points out that chemistry teaching is the key path
to practice the philosophy of chemistry curriculum and guide students to achieve the quality
standard of chemistry study, including "teaching" and "learning", and the relationship between
the two is intrinsically unified. The purpose of teaching in the classroom should be to teach
students how to learn knowledge, not just to impart knowledge itself. Students are the main
body in the classroom, what teachers should do is to guide students to learn, give students a
certain degree of guidance, students under the guidance of the teacher to communicate and
cooperate with classmates, bravely express their ideas, and build their own knowledge system.
After-School Evaluation Stage
Project-based teaching emphasizes students' internalization of knowledge in real situations [9]
and cultivates students' ability to solve practical problems. Only by studying its evaluation
system can valuable judgment be made on students' learning. At present, the evaluation method
unanimously recognized by Chinese educators is the organic combination of formative
evaluation and terminal evaluation to reflect students' learning performance comprehensively
and truly. And the source of evaluation is not limited to teachers, can be parents, classmates and
even students themselves.
THE IMPLEMENTATION PROCESS OF PROJECT-BASED TEACHING IN HIGH SCHOOL
CHEMISTRY
In the early stage of the project, teachers make plans, define tasks and provide technical
guidance; Students collect information, understand the task, and determine the division of
labor.
Middle stage of the project: teachers create situations, raise questions and provide technical
guidance; Student group cooperation, investigation and research, effect test.
In the later stage of the project, teachers organize communication, make comprehensive
evaluation and give suggestions; Student self-evaluation, inter-group evaluation, self-summary.
This paper takes the "Handmade soap making" micro-project as an example to illustrate the
development and implementation of project-based teaching cases based on China's national
curriculum.
Theme Analysis of Project Content
The making of soap is the content of the first part of the oil part in Chapter 4 of the Chinese High
School Chemistry Human Education Edition Elective 5, and it is also the experimental content
of the chemical production process of Theme 3 of the elective course Series 1 of the Chinese
Chemistry Curriculum Standards for General High School (2017 edition). The process of making
handmade soap is more interesting and easier to stimulate students' interest in chemical
experiments; In this project-based study, students can better understand the scientific process
of soap making, and deepen the principle of soap making by hand compared with industrial
soap making methods.
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Wang, P., Xu, S., Xu, Y., & Tang, Y. (2023). The Application of Project-Based Teaching Based on Chinese Characteristics in High School Chemistry.
Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 10(7). 365-372.
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/assrj.107.14966
This paper designs three main activities [10]. By completing a series of learning tasks, Chinese
high school students can realize the important role of control variable thought in scientific
inquiry in the process of solving practical problems, so as to develop core qualities such as
concept change, evidential reasoning and scientific inquiry.
Project Teaching Objectives
Through access to information for soap production, master the principle of saponification
reaction.
The specific experimental operation is carried out according to the principle of saponification
reaction to improve the understanding and application ability of knowledge.
Try to see life from the perspective of chemistry, and use chemical knowledge to solve problems
in production and life, develop scientific inquiry, innovation consciousness, social responsibility
and other aspects of literacy.
Project Tasks and Teaching Process
In conjunction with the project theme "Handmade Soap Making", the teachers asked the driving
question: how to make beautiful and practical soap at home [11]. The project learning process
of the project consists of three parts: (1) understanding the principle of soap making; (2)
Explore how to make handmade soap at home; (3) Design the soap making scheme. The
teaching time of this project is 3 class hours, and the learning duration of the whole project is
about 1 month.
Project Implementation Process and Student Learning Outcomes
[ Consult before class] Students consult the methods and principles of handmade soap through
materials, networks and other means before class.
[Introduction of situation]: Introduce common cleaning supplies in daily life, show you a variety
of soap, and ask how soap is made?
[Teachers propose to drive the general task] How to make handmade soap at home?
Project activity 1 Share the main ingredients of soap and understand the experimental principle
[ Pre-class task] Students consult materials and guide students to understand the principle of
soap making.
[Student activitys] Watch videos on making soap by hand in ancient ways and making soap by
industry.
[Teachersupplement] The production of soap in the factory is to first saponify the refined oil
and alkali, and then salt out the soap base, so that glycerol, excessive lye, water and soap base
are separated. Finally reprocessed into different forms of products [12].
[Teacher guidance] Each group sends a student as a representative to try to explain the
principle of soap making and conduct group mutual evaluation [13].
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Wang, P., Xu, S., Xu, Y., & Tang, Y. (2023). The Application of Project-Based Teaching Based on Chinese Characteristics in High School Chemistry.
Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 10(7). 365-372.
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/assrj.107.14966
[Teacher summary] Through the study of this project, we not only made handmade soap with
different shapes, but also understood the use of chemical methods to solve practical problems.
I believe that every student has a benefit.
INSPIRATION FROM PROJECT-BASED TEACHING
The project-based teaching of handmade soap making can create real situations [14], and
students can participate in exploration, solve real problems, consolidate relevant knowledge
points, and improve students' innovative knowledge and practical ability. Students not only
learn chemical knowledge, but also have a strong interest and desire to explore the chemistry
subject. Chemistry comes from life, and the integration of boring chemical knowledge into
activities closely related to life enables students to fully feel the charm of chemistry, cultivate
their ability to use chemical knowledge to solve practical problems, feel the close connection
between chemistry and production and life, feel the convenience brought by chemistry for
production and life, and appreciate the discipline value of chemistry.
This section of design allows students to take on more responsibility and develop their
experimental design skills and literacy competencies autonomously. This kind of teaching
method, which focuses on cultivating students' active learning, can scientifically and effectively
cultivate students' participation, and significantly improve students' ability to learn knowledge
and solve practical problems. Students solve practical problems through independent
cooperation and analysis, and finally achieve project success [15].
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