5.

1- Teaching Approaches
 What approach did you choose?

Chosen Approach- Group work 3 (Rainbow grouping)

 How useful do you think the approach will be for teaching IGCSE Chemistry?  

I think this approach will be very useful for teaching IGCSE Chemistry. I’ve heard of the other approaches,
but this one is completely new to me. From my understanding of ‘Rainbow grouping’, students start in a
home group and discuss a topic or question. Each member of the group is allocated a colour. At a certain
point, the members of the home group will be separated and regrouped into the groups of their respective
colours. The students will then need to relay what was discussed in their home group, to their new group.
This should encourage students to be proactive in working with their home group; to listen, try to
understand what is discussed, and explain it to their new group. In theory, it should be an activity that is
inclusive to all students.

 Which topics does this type of approach work well for? Give your reasons.

I haven’t used this type of approach before, but I think it would be good to use when looking at topics
that have an historical element to them and or real life examples (research activities). It could be useful
for looking at-

States of matter- examples of, and differences between states.

History of the Atom- researching Rutherford, Dalton etc

Metals -> properties and reasons for properties.

Acids and alkalis -> Neutralisation

Seperation techniques-> real life uses/examples

Chemical and physical changes

I think that it would work well for these topics as the students wouldn’t require a lot of teacher input and
this would help them to work towards becoming independent learners. These topics/areas do not require
a great level of scientific knowledge or understanding to be able to research them.

 Which topics does this type of approach not work well for? Give your reasons.

I’m not too sure if ‘Rainbow Grouping’ is only effective for research-based activities or not. If it is
primarily a tool to aid research-based activities, then it would not be useful for topics that require a
certain level of prior knowledge or understanding of abstract ideas. i.e. bonding, without being taught
how the different types of bonding work. This approach may not be very beneficial. At a later stage,
however, it may be useful i.e., for giant covalent structures.
I also, don’t think it would be useful for Stoichiometry as students would only relay answers or be
dependent on certain individuals to calculate answers.

For topics that have lots of new vocabulary, e.g., Electrochemistry, this method approach may not work
too well either. (again, this may be better to use towards the end of the topic when possible looking at
real life examples of electroplating.)

 How do you integrate this approach into your teaching?

I think this approach could be implemented prior to starting a new topic (only for certain topics).
Students could be given the name of the topic, i.e. States of matter, and then have to research what they
can find out about it. It may also be used at the end of a topic as a form of assessment. I.e after students
have been taught separation techniques, they could research different, real life examples. This would
probably work by each group being given 1 separation technique to research and when the groups
separate and reform- the new groups should each have a member who has information on each of the
techniques.

I think this approach would work well during the main, as research activities can take a large amount of
time.