STRUCTURAL CHEMISTRY AND SPATIAL ABILITY IN DIFFERENT CULTURES

Abstract

In chemistry, the importance of structure of matter cannot be underestimated. It has always been a tradition in organic chemistry to use the stick-and-ball model of molecular structure, to discuss isomers or to derive structural formulas. Unfortunately, this structure-oriented approach is not common in teaching inorganic chemistry at secondary schools at least in Germany: Although metals, sulfur, sulfides, oxides or chlorides are mostly taken as solid substances, in school lessons it is not common to have sphere packings or crystal lattices as structural models of these inorganic solids. On the other hand, true understanding of structures in chemistry requires a sufficient level of spatial ability. Accordingly, this research investigated spatial abilities not only of German students at grades 7 – 12 of secondary schools (ages 13 – 18 years), but also a comparable sample of African students in Addis Ababa. In each country, we took samples of two different school types and based our studies on three hypotheses dealing with cultural, grade (age) and sex differences. [Chem. Educ. Res. Pract. Eur.: 2001, 2, 227-239]