The implementation of constructivism in chemistry in remote areas of china

Abstract

Constructivism pays attention to the subject status of students, students' active discovery in the teaching process, and the construction of the meaning of knowledge, which coincides with the concepts of chemistry new curriculum reform of middle schools and science education in the beginning of the 21st century in China. Through a review of the literature in the past two decades, it is found that the theoretical development of constructivism in China is still lacking, which lead to some teachers are unable to carry out the new curriculum standards smoothly because of their lack of understanding of constructivism, especially in remote areas, there are very few related researches, and it is impossible to understand the situation of curriculum reform without a comprehensive understanding of the implementation of constructivism in China. Therefore, this study aims to understand the implementation level of constructivism in the chemistry curriculum reform in remote areas of China from three aspects that consist of teachers’ knowledge level, attitudes and current teaching environment. This study used a quantitative approach to conduct a questionnaire survey of 42 middle school chemistry teachers in Shihezi City, a remote area of China. According to the pilot test, the questionnaire has high validity and reliability, with a reliability of 0.978. The data obtained have used SPSS for descriptive statistics, including median, frequency and percentage. The research results show that the constructivist knowledge of teachers in this area is at a moderate level, and their attitudes towards constructivist theories are highly recognized, while the current constructivist teaching environment is approximately at a medium level. This research is conducive to understanding and promoting the professional development of constructivism in remote areas of China, and is conducive to discovering problems that hinder the implementation of constructivism and proposing targeted solutions.