Promoting Students’ Conceptual Understanding in Drawing and Naming of Hydrocarbons using ChemDraw Software with Guided Worksheets

This study examined the effect of ChemDraw software with worksheets intervention on senior high school students’ conceptual understanding of drawing and naming of hydrocarbons. Purposive sampling technique was used to select an intact class of 35 students offering General Science and had prior knowledge of drawing and naming of hydrocarbons through the traditional teaching method. This study adopted a quantitative research approach with action research design as the blueprint for data collection and analysis. The instrument used to collect the data was the Hydrocarbon Nomenclature Achievement Test (HNAT), which took the form of a pre-intervention test and a post-intervention test. The post-intervention test was a modified form of the pre-intervention test. The reliability of the instrument was determined calculating the test re-test reliability index, which was found as 0.760 indicating that the instrument was reliable. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics (percentages and bar charts) and inferential statistics (paired samples t-test). Findings revealed that prior to the implementation of ChemDraw software with guided worksheets intervention, students possessed low-level conceptual understanding of hydrocarbons resulting in several forms of conceptual difficulties in drawing and naming of hydrocarbons with substituents, multiple bonds and multiple functional groups. The study further found that the ChemDraw software with guided worksheet intervention was effective in promoting students’ conceptual understanding in drawing and naming of hydrocarbons. The magnitude of the effect was large. Consequently, students’ improved performance in the post-intervention test was due to the ChemDraw software with guided worksheet intervention. The study concludes that ChemDraw software with guided worksheets intervention is an effective interactive teaching and learning strategy that promotes students’ conceptual understanding of hydrocarbons and should be integrated into the teaching of organic chemistry at the senior high school level.

Keywords: Conceptual difficulties, hydrocarbons, improved performance, intervention.