Students’ conceptual understanding of organic chemistry and classroom implications in the Rwandan perspectives: A literature review

Abstract

Chemistry subject continues to be considered as difficult to teach and learn. This leads to students’ low academic achievement, retention, and negative attitude towards the subject. Organic chemistry as one of the concepts on which technological advancement is constructed sometimes appears to be enormously complex to students. There are some persisting misconceptions about it although different innovative instructional strategies have been applied and this area is of main concern as the learning of students can be extremely hindered in case their misconceptions are not minimized and/or corrected. The review then is to equip educators with knowledge about organic chemistry concept and source of students ‘misconceptions; the misconceptions of students about organic chemistry; the ways of diagnosing students’ misconceptions and remedies of those misconceptions; some learning theories for the effective organic chemistry instruction and classroom implications. The paper is also useful to know more about the minimization of students’ misconceptions and leading them to the great academic achievement and interest towards the subject by employing cooperative learning models; thus, many other different innovative teaching strategies are recommended to apply in organic chemistry instruction