How many times have you had this or a similar conversation with a student? This is something that can frustrate us as teachers—after all, we all want students to walk away from lessons thinking “Ah, now I get it!” rather than “Um, I still don’t understand.” In my personal experience, nearly all chemistry students have some level of misunderstanding, even if it is as simple as thinking a physical change is always reversible. However, this isn’t too surprising, when you consider the size and visibility of the particles being studied.

After my first year of teaching, I realized that a lot of students had trouble understanding covalent structures, especially molecular geometry. More surprising was that it wasn’t just the first-year chemistry students—but all of them. What really troubled me was that even my AP students were having a hard time. As I dug deeper, I found that most had similar misconceptions which caused them to interpret molecular structures differently than they should. As a new teacher, this caused me to doubt my teaching abilities, and question if I had chosen the wrong profession.

Is it me? Or more accurately, us?

After realizing that I was the problem (or maybe just my teaching style), I looked into what I could do during an introductory chemistry course to help lessen misconceptions and improve understanding of chemical structure. I wanted to find what was missing and what could be improved to help students better understand the world on a molecular level.

I have found that many teachers have a shared goal of wanting their students to understand all that they can before leaving our classrooms. This has given me hope and led me to a discussion with a colleague who pointed me to the Cult of Pedagogy podcast hosted by Jennifer Gonzalez, and specifically, her January 2018 episode titled, Moving from Feedback to Feedforward, which discussed getting students to use their feedback moving forward to new content.

This idea was very interesting to me, especially with a class like chemistry. Much of what we do in chemistry builds on previous units, so using feedforward is great. Once I tried it and felt it was useful, I wanted to tweak it and make it my own, based on the needs of my students. So, I began looking into ways this could also be used to address misconceptions moving forward.

I attended the VisChem Institute, aimed at improving conceptual understanding in high school chemistry, where I was surrounded by chemistry teachers who wanted to learn to lessen student misconceptions using molecular diagramming. That experience inspired me to continue to look for new ways to teach topics that students tend to overthink. As we say in my classroom, “The sky is blue, and sometimes it is that easy!” Since then, I have revised my classroom structure into a space where students understand they can make a mistake while learning, without penalty. I’ve found it’s an effective way to make sure they get that full science experience.

Helping to limit student misconceptions

Self-Directed Practice with Feedback

Figure 1. Example of student work with detailed feedback.

I try to create a student-driven classroom experience, so that students can feel more invested in their learning. Students can turn in optional practice at any point in the semester and receive feedback, whether it’s regarding an online activity or a worksheet. These practice activities are mostly short tasks that should require no more than 15-20 minutes to complete. Activities are available on the class website and as printed copies in my classroom.

For each unit, there are a few activities available, each covering a different part of the unit. For example, for the electron behavior unit, there are separate practice activities available for many topics, including electron configuration, ion configuration, organization of the periodic table, and periodic trends. After turning in their work, students receive detailed feedback from me. The feedback can focus on what they are doing well and/or what needs revision, depending on student performance. I also use this information to inform me as to how I can pair students together—having a student who is struggling work with a classmate who has mastered the concept, for example. 

Students are free to work on practice activities at any time, allowing them to take ownership of their work and learn how to time manage. This allows me to focus on students who need intervention during the class period, where I can reinstruct as needed. There are enrichment practices as well to allow the “high flyers” to see what content awaits them in higher level chemistry courses they may take in the future. This organization creates a highly differentiated teaching environment.

Throughout a unit, students submit those practice activities that suit them best, so they differ based on content and length. Each time a student submits their practice, whether by sending me a picture through email or handing in a hard copy, I take a few minutes to review their work. On average, shorter practices take me 1-3 minutes per student. Longer or more complex topics, such as stoichiometry, can take me a little longer to review and provide feedback, but usually no more than 5-8 minutes per student. 

Providing this feedback requires more work on my end, but I have combated that by not grading these assignments. To ensure I provide good feedback, I keep these assignments short, allowing me time to address the mistakes and misconceptions. Students have the freedom to work on what they need for themselves, and I have noticed that this method helps to teach them how to self-manage. 

As always, there will be students who do not want to do anything extra, and this can cause some problems during the class period, especially if they are influential students in the class. For individual students who don’t do practice but should, I reach out to them and their parents to discuss what practices would be in their best interest to complete. This is a very positive way of communicating with parents and can be a more individualized discussion. In my experience, many parents see the value in this system after hearing the reasoning. When students who are not doing the work begin influencing others to get lazy, it is necessary to deter that behavior. It is best to find what works for your specific students; but in my experience, stickers, candy, and bonus points are all great incentives for students to work. 

Rolling feedback 

In addition to the practices mentioned previously, I also do not specify a due date for these practice activities, other than “by the end of the semester.” I know that may seem strange, but I’ve seen that sometimes students believe that they understand a topic only to realize during the test that they actually don’t understand it. Rolling feedback helps by allowing students to go back and review previously assessed material, turn it in to me, even after we have moved on from that topic, providing an avenue for improving their understanding. As one student said: 

The expectation is that most of these extra practice opportunities will be completed outside of class time or during any extra time the students have after we finish our daily activities during a class period. In an effort to help those with a heavy after-school schedule, I purposely plan and schedule days in class specifically for practice and review. These days allow me to group students for some peer learning while I work with students who are in need of additional instruction. A lot of what we do in chemistry relies on knowledge from previous units. Using rolling feedback, the students are consistently reviewing and reinforcing important material, allowing them to see which topics are blended together.

Embracing the purpose

While this may result in a somewhat chaotic classroom environment at times, I believe that it is worth it. I’ve found a few tricks to help me keep my head above water:

• Keep track of the activities completed by each student in a spreadsheet or in a paper record book. This will give you a snapshot of how each student is performing on these non-graded tasks. This also helps when speaking with parents about student success, because you can pull data from your records.
• Circulate around the room when allowing work time. This helps keep students on task while also allowing you to address any misconceptions or problems directly with students.
• Include questions in the practice activities that are similar to those found on an assessment, so those who complete the practice have an advantage, reinforcing the idea that completing practice is important.

While these methods can be a useful tool for some teachers, they may not work for everyone. I have found that being an organized person has been an important part of my success with these strategies. Other teachers have told me that they can’t use these methods because they cannot find time to review the practice assignments and document the feedback for students quickly.

Personally, I consciously try to complete review during portions of class time when students are working independently. If I review their work while they are in the classroom with me, I can go over any misconceptions specific students may have and remediate quickly before they move on to new activities.

Another possible issue with this approach can be students copying from others, rather than doing the work themselves. I’ve noticed this becomes more likely if an incentive such as bonus points are awarded for completion. To prevent this, I make it clear to students that if they cheat, there are additional assignments given to them, as well as parent contact.

I keep track of all the practice assignments completed by each student. I compare the grades on each assessment for students who completed practice assignments versus those who did not. Generally, I’ve found that there tends to be benefit, indicated by higher scores, for students who complete the practice. For example, students who worked on at least half of the available practice assignments scored an average of almost 93% on the Chemical Bonding unit test, while those who did less than half of the practice assignments averaged only about 90%. I’ve observed this same trend across unit tests in both my Honors and On-Level Chemistry classes as well. Typically those students completing half or more of the available practice activities score a few points higher on the test than those who do not.

Ultimately, I believe that students should feel comfortable making mistakes, so providing these feedback opportunities may help a student take more risks. Many of my students feel this is something that helps in their learning. One student shared:

In the end, it is important to make sure you do what is best for your chemistry students! Using these teaching strategies, I have witnessed a major shift in my students’ investment in their learning, as well as improved understanding. I hope my experience may be helpful inspiration for other teachers as well.