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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal – Vol. 10, No. 7

Publication Date: July 25, 2023

DOI:10.14738/assrj.107.14967

Tang, Y., Xu, S., Xu, Y., & Wang, P. (2023). Teaching the Big Concept of Chemistry in the Context of China's Basic Education Reform.

Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 10(7). 177-184.

Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom

Teaching the Big Concept of Chemistry in the Context of China's

Basic Education Reform

YanyanTang

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

Pengyun Wang

College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering,

Henan University, Kaifeng, China

ABSTRACT

In the eighth curriculum reform, China proposed to developstudents' core literacy

in disciplines, aiming to explore what kind of teaching mode and means can

cultivate outstanding talents through Chinese school education, and emphasize the

emphasis on the teaching of major concepts of disciplines to make the curriculum

content structured. The teaching of major concepts is highly abstract and

generalized, which can help students establish a knowledge structure system and

promote thetransfer and application of knowledge. This paper takes the knowledge

of galvanic batteries as the carrier and the question of "why can the fan rotate" as

the driving force, forms a cognitive model, and puts forward a unit teaching led by

a large concept from the perspective of energy conversion, so that students can

better understand the galvanic battery model and apply it to life, so as to promote

the development of students' core literacy.

Keywords: Big concept, Core literacy, Education reform, Galvanic cells

Since the beginning of reform and opening up in 1978, Chinahas gone through four stages

of basic education reform, each of which has been practiced in combination with national

conditions, school conditions and academic conditions, and achieved good results. From the

Ministry of Education proposedto strengthen "double-base" teaching in the classroom to

primary and secondary schools from "examination-oriented education" to comprehensively

improve the national quality of education, the development of China's education has made great

progress, from 2001 to 2007 put forward the "three-dimensional goal" students' inquiry ability

and autonomy has been well developed, now the teaching under the core literacy emphasizes

that big-concept teaching can better implement quality education.

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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal (ASSRJ) Vol. 10, Issue 7, July-2023

Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom

INTRODUCTION OFBIG CONCEPTS

The idea of big concept can be traced back to Bruner, who believes that big concept is the

knowledge structure of the discipline, the knowledge framework formed in the student's mind,

and this framework is extremely transferable and inductive [1]. Ausubel proposed the theory

of "advance organizer", the so-called first organizer is a big concept, that is, a guide material

with higher abstraction and generalization, which not only provides a key fixation point for the

learning of new knowledge, but also increases the recognizability between new and old

knowledge [2]. Erikson believes that the big concept is the core of the discipline, the essence

bone marrow of a discipline that removes the surface shell, and has a strong transferability, and

over time students can apply the knowledge learned in school to the vertical intradisciplinary

context inside and outside the school, as well as the horizontal interdisciplinary context. [3]

In 2011, the Dutch educator Wynne Harlen defined the conceptof " big concept " in the book "

science education with the concept of big concept " as the concept that we can use to explain

and predict a wide range of natural phenomena. It divides big concepts into scientific concepts

and concepts aboutscience, and puts forward four characteristics that big conceptsshould have

[4]

.

Whiteley emphasizes that big concepts are building materials forunderstanding and can be

considered as meaningful patterns to enable people to connect other scattered knowledge

points [5].

This requires teachers to integrate textbook knowledge more systematically to provide

students with more organized chemicalknowledge. The big concept is not disorderly free in the

discipline structure but presents a network structure. This network-like structure includes

intra-disciplinary network structure and inter-disciplinary network structure ( also known as

interdisciplinary network structure ), and each big concept is the base station that completes

the communication between network structures [6].The big concept network in the discipline

refers to the vertical connection of a certain discipline, and the selection and organization of the

course content with the big concept as the center in different sections, which is the key clue of

the course design. The inter-disciplinary big concept refers to the horizontal connection of

certain disciplines, spanning two or more knowledge fields, and the reasonable connection

between different disciplines based on a common big concept, which effectively blurs the

boundary between disciplines. Any subject will not exist in isolation, and teaching will

inevitably involvethe comprehensive application of several subjects.

In the " General High School Chemistry Curriculum Standards (2017 Edition 2020 Revision) "

issued by the Ministry of Education of China, it is pointed out that " attaching importance to

taking the big concept of the discipline as the core, structuringthe curriculum content, taking

the theme as the guide, contextualizing the curriculum content, and promoting the

implementation of the core literacy of the discipline. " This is the first time that China 's basic

education emphasizes in the curriculum standards that the curriculum content needs to be

structured with the big concept of the discipline as the core to promote the implementation of

the core literacy of the discipline [2]

.

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Tang, Y., Xu, S., Xu, Y., & Wang, P. (2023). Teaching the Big Concept of Chemistry in the Context of China's Basic Education Reform. Advances in

Social Sciences Research Journal, 10(7). 177-184.

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/assrj.107.14967

In the context of the new curriculum reform, the proposal of core literacy is intended to explore

what kind of teaching mode and means can truly cultivate outstanding talents in Chinese

schools. In 2020, major changes have been made to the high school entrance examination

system in various provinces and cities and the college entrance examination system in different

regions. It requires a considerable number of students to carry out vocational and technical

education after the academic examination. At the same time, the ' 3 + 1 + 2 ' elective system is

implemented in the first grade of senior high school, which requires teachers to guide students

to make reasonable planning for future learning. It poses a challenge to how to develop students

' ' key competencies ' and ' essential character ' in class.

The " General High School Chemistry Curriculum Standards (2017 Edition) " (hereinafter

referred to as the " New Curriculum Standards “) clearly states that the subject curriculum

should " attach importance to the core of the big concept of the subject and structure the course

content. "[2].

THE BIG CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK IN THE KNOWLEDGE OF 'CHEMICAL ENERGY AND

ELECTRIC ENERGY'

As the key to leading the implementation of the core literacy of the discipline in the curriculum

reform in the new era of China, the big concept has become a hot topic in the field of education.

If teachers master the basic conceptual framework of the subject,it will help students retain the

memory of subject knowledge and promote the transfer of learning [8].

The unit of " chemical energy and electric energy " in the compulsory stage of Chinese high

school textbook belongs to the part of " chemical reaction and energy conversion " in the theme

3 of the new curriculum standard. The new curriculum standard of China clearly points out : '

Knowing that chemical reaction can realize the conversion of chemical energy and otherforms

of energy, taking the primary battery as an example to understand that chemical energy can be

converted into electrical energy, and preliminarily understand the working principle of the

primary battery from the perspective of redox reaction '[9]; teaching strategies should ' play

the functional value of important knowledge, help Chinese students develop the basic

perspective of understanding chemical reactions, and form basic concepts ' When things change

or are changed, energy conversion occurs, but the total amount of energy in the universeis

always constant '[10]. The content of chemical energy and electrical energy in the PEP high

school chemistry compulsory( Book 2 )textbook ( hereinafter referred to as the " new textbook

" ) published in China in 2019 mainly includes the primary battery and its working principle,

the design and production of simple batteries ( the discussion of the elements ofthe primary

battery and its nature and function ), and the chemical battery ( the simple understanding of

zinc manganese dry battery and lead-acid battery ). The teaching design is basedon the big

concept of " when things change or are changed, energy conversion will occur, but the total

amount of energy in the universe is always the same, " to help students form a modelcognition.