Chemistry Teachers’ Awareness and Utilization of Information Communication Technology Tools for Addressing Difficult Chemistry Concepts

Abstract

This study investigated the awareness and utilization level of chemistry teachers, regarding the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to address difficult chemistry concepts. Three research questions guided the study A survey design was employed, with data collected from 33 chemistry teachers using a validated, 3-clustered, self-developed structured questionnaire named Addressing Chemistry Difficult Concepts Using ICT Tools (ACDCICT). The Cronbach’s Alpha reliability indices for the three clusters of the RCDCICT are 0.84, 0.88, and 0.86 respectively.  Descriptive statistics specifically, mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions.  Results revealed that teachers identified electrolysis, energy and chemical reactions, orbitals and electronic structure of atoms, nuclear chemistry, and chemical bonding as the most difficult topics for students. The study found a low level of awareness among teachers regarding ICT tools such as Chemsketch, Microsoft PowerPoint, and YouTube for addressing difficult chemistry concepts.  Chemistry teachers do not frequently utilize ICT tools for the addressing of difficult chemistry concepts. The study recommended, among others, chemistry teachers should make effort to present chemistry contents in a simplified manner through leveraging both general ICT and subject specific tools such as ChemDraw, ChemSketch,