Introduction

Background

Organic chemistry is a compulsory subject for all the Malaysian science matriculation students. The second semester of this programme comprises of 11 organic chemistry topics and in the final examination the organic chemistry questions takes about 70% of the whole paper. In order to score in chemistry, students are required to master organic chemistry.

Problem statement/reflection

In the study of organic chemistry at the matriculation level, the most important learning areas are the physical properties and the chemical properties of the organic compounds. From the Laporan Kerja Calon (LKC), report for the academic session 2013/2014, we found that it was rare for students to answer questions on synthetic pathway and predicting or deducing organic compound structures due to their lack of confidence to answer such questions.

In this fast track system, we often rush to try to catch up with the syllabus requirements due to the large amount of chapters to cover within a short period of time. The current teacher-centered approaches which were based on memorizing all the reactions of aliphatic compound without any visual stimuli seems to be uninteresting, causing the students to feel burdened with the ‘tyranny content’ and novel approaches of teaching. This problem repeat itself every second semester, causing frustration and disappointment among the lecturers. 

The concept map approach has been practiced by most chemistry lecturers to guide students to construct a meaningful mind map after completing each chapter. For example, if the teaching has covered up to the amine chapter, students would have 7 individual mind maps. Despite helping most students to learn individual organic reactions, they were still UNABLE to:

1. Visualise the link between the 7 individual mind maps.
2. Outline the synthetic pathway for organic compounds.
3. Predict unknown organic compounds.
4. Visualise the linkage of different classes of organic compounds.

Intervention

Looking into the problem, we are motivated to come up with a tangible solution. After thorough research and discussions, we realised that concept maps are still one of the most appropriate and realistic approach in engaging the students with organic compounds.

According to Sket and Glazar (2005), concept map is a well-approved method for science instruction. Much knowledge in organic chemistry can be organised by concept mapping (Lin and Liu, 2003). Concept maps are visual or spatial representations of ideas and concepts as well as their interrelationships. They are tools intended for organizing what the learner knows and for engaging learners in relating new ideas to what they had learnt. However we improvised the current concept mapping approach by combining all 7 individual mind maps into one concept map and called it the Chameleon Concept Map (CCM). 

The CCM method was to promote a visualisation of transforming one functional group to another functional group. The intention was to help students on visualization of cognitive structures and also to link information and retain contents of their subject in the form of mind map. We know that using concept maps can also promote memorizing, inter-knowledge correlations and effective use of mental activities (Karakuyu, 2010). 

The CCM method was later turned into a self-help guidebook to promote independent learning among students. The students can make full use of the guidebook to self-study and understand the chemical reactions involved in all aliphatic organic compounds by constructing their own CCM based on the clear and pictorial guidelines given.

The CCM guidebook is our original idea which was inspired by the conventional concept mapping of individual mind maps in order to help the students to see and understand the relationships between the 7 individual mind maps of aliphatic organic Chemistry. 

Target groups

All students who take the subject of Chemistry at Selangor Matriculation College.

Suitability/Efficacy

The effectiveness of the CCM method has been proven in a research through conducting tests and questionnaires.

a)      Pre tests vs. post tests (I & II)

                                         

                                                                                        

Pre tests and post tests (I & II) had been conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the CCM method among students. Obvious improvements in the scores from pre tests to post tests can be observed from the graphs for all three achiever groups.

b)      Questionnaires

Questionnaires has also been conducted among students to identify their preference of using CCM method based on number of positive positive value achieved. The results illustrated in the graph above shows that more than 90% of the students agree with the effectivenss of the CCM method in helping them to answer related questions.

Supported by the positive data collected above, we are convinced that the CCM method is suitable to be implemented among students to help them learn aliphatic organic chemistry the easy way. Due to the simple and clear guidelines provided, the CCM guidebook can also be used not just by the students to self-learn but also by the chemistry lectures to use it as a reference to deliver their teaching in aliphatic organic chemistry. 

In general, the CCM guidebook is capable of contributing towards a teaching method which set up a learning environment of visual-mental material that attracted students’ attention to the subject.