Approaching the concepts of acids and bases by cooperative learning

An approach for teaching the topic ‘acids and bases’ in the ninth grade (first grade of general secondary school - age 15 - in Yugoslavia) is presented. The active construction of knowledge through social interaction and the interaction with the learning content is provided by experimental work. Two cooperative learning forms are applied: students’ working in groups and the ‘teacher-student’ form. In both forms, the students were required to analyze, to compare properties of given substances and to apply previously acquired knowledge in order to give explanations and draw conclusions. The effects of this approach were tested by an experimental-control group method. Initial Test 1 showed the equivalency of the two groups. The experimental-group achieved higher than the control group on the final paper-and-pencil Test 2 by 16% at the reproduction level, 22% at the understanding level, and 14% at the application level. A significantly higher number of students from the experimental group than the control group were capable to apply theoretical knowledge in the explanations of the changes observed in demonstration experiments performed during the final Test 3. Furthermore, according to the final Test 4 results, these students were more successful in organizing and carrying out their own experiments and in explaining the obtained results. [Chem. Educ. Res. Pract. Eur.: 2000, 1, 263-275