Meeting Educational Objectives in the Affective and Cognitive Domains: Personal and Social Constructivist Perspectives on Enjoyment, Motivation and Learning Chemistry - Affective Dimensions in Chemistry Education - page 20

facilitate progression in thinking, depending upon the specific circumstances. More
research is needed to investigate how such learning contexts evolve over time and
to identify key characteristics that can support teaching.
Secondly, and more unequivocally, much of what has been argued from the

' programme in science education on grounds deriving from consid-

eration of the cognitive domain would appear to also make sense from considering
the affective domain. Indeed, the argument for a broadly constructivist perspective
on teaching and learning is strengthened.

constructivist '

5.1 Implications for Teaching

Teachers should not only be diagnosing students prior knowledge and seeking

opportunities to link new teaching to their existing thinking, but teachers should
also be looking for opportunities to actively co-opt learners into the process of
constructivist learning. Finding out how learners experience teaching—when they
feel things make sense to them; when they understand links with prior learning;
when they feel they can cope with, or are overwhelmed by, the pace of new
material; whether they feel ready to try an example with less support; etc.—
works at three levels: cognitive, affective and metacognitive.
Such a learner-centred focus helps the teacher in the essential task of better
matching teaching to the readiness of the learner in the (cognitive/conceptual) sense
widely argued in constructivist writing. However,

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beyond cold conceptual change

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(Pintrich, Marx, & Boyle, 1993 ), it also ensures that learners can feel challenged,
yet not overstretched by learning. Not being bored, not being asked to do the trivial,
not being too stressed and not being overwhelmed are important criteria to ensure
students remain motivated and engaged and find learning chemistry a positive
experience. Well-judged teaching leads to success in learning, which both improves
academic self-concept and provides positive associations to learning the subject. In
addition, actively inviting feedback on the learning experience in this way helps
encourage a metacognitive attitude to learning and so invites learners to take on
more responsibility for their learning (a theme explored further in Chap. 7 ) . Taking
ownership for their learning can support a sense of students being in control and
allows them to take more satisfaction in successful learning. (It is also a pragmatic
strategy for the teacher trying to fine-tune learning demands for large classes of
different learners who have to be taught at the same time.)
In a sense, this sequence may help undermine one of the criticisms of formal
education. We are all natural learners: inquisitive and driven to make sense of our
environments. Yet, it is commonly argued that many students become disengaged
in learning during secondary school because much of what they are taught is fairly
meaningless to them and largely arbitrary in that they are the passive recipients of
whatever a teacher

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s scheme of work determines should be taught on a particular
day. The logic of formal education systems that include large classes and prescribed
curriculum does not usually allow teachers to let students set their own agenda for

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