An Analysis of Two Textbooks on the Topic of Intermolecular Forces

This paper describes the analysis of two commonly used high school (Grades 11 and 12) chemistry textbooks in Singapore to determine if the content presented in the topic of intermolecular forces is consistent with the concepts and propositional knowledge identified by the authors as essential for the learning and understanding of the topic according to the Singapore high school chemistry syllabus. The authors found that the two textbooks did not adequately discuss the electrostatic nature of intermolecular forces, and the factors influencing the polarity of bonds/molecules, hydrogen bonding and instantaneous dipole-induced dipole interactions. The insufficient coverage of the above areas may lead to students having alternative conceptions of intermolecular forces as they may have incomplete or little understanding of the concepts involved and relationships between these concepts. Thus, teachers need to analyse textbooks carefully before using the textbooks so that they can be more aware of the difficulties that students may face when reading the textbooks, and attend to these areas by careful elaboration and integration of concepts in their lessons.