Context-Based Chemistry: Creating Opportunities for Fluid Transitions between Concepts and Context

Nationally and internationally, context-based programs have been implemented in an attempt to engage students in chemistry through connecting the canonical science with the real world. In Queensland, a context-based approach to chemistry was trialled in selected schools from 2002 but there is little research that investigates how students learn in a context-based setting. This paper presents one significant finding from an ethnographic study that explored the learning that occurred in an 11th grade context-based chemistry classroom in Queensland. The study found that by providing students with the opportunity to write, fluid transitions (or "to-ing" and "fro-ing") between concepts and context were an outcome of context-based learning. (Contains 4 tables and 1 figure.)