Investigating the Representation of Practical Work in Chemistry Classroom Teaching by Focusing on the Diversity of Scientific Methods

The diversity of scientific methods has received widespread attention and recognition in recent years. Brandon’s Matrix illustrated four categories of scientific methods, which was applied to establish the analytical framework of this study. This paper adopted content analysis to investigate how the diversity of scientific methods is represented in practical work of chemistry classroom teaching in China. Analytical results revealed the imbalanced representation of scientific methods in practical work of chemistry classroom teaching, with nearly a half for non-manipulative parameter measurement (Non-MPM) but less than 10% for manipulative hypothesis testing (MHT), indicating that practical work of chemistry classroom teaching was inclined to be non-experimental. Compared to junior high school, a higher percentage of non-manipulative hypothesis testing (Non-MHT) and a lower percentage of manipulative parameter measurement (MPM) appeared in senior high school chemistry classroom teaching. By contrast with descriptive chemistry, theoretical chemistry classroom teaching had a larger proportion of the manipulative category but a smaller proportion of the hypothesis-testing category. At the end of this paper, the implications of the findings and the suggestions for further studies were discussed.