Rural Education and Chemical Mereology: possible approaches in the study of atoms and molecules

Abstract

Chemical mereology, a dimension of the philosophy of chemistry, is a recent area in chemistry education. It recognizes the importance of philosophical and epistemological discussions for understanding concepts, especially as students often struggle to grasp how basic units combine to form larger units – the whole/part relationship. This research aims to bridge the gap between the contents associated with macro and microparticles in chemistry teaching and the theoretical contributions of chemical mereology. The study was conducted in a multigrade class comprising 7th, 8th, and 9th-grade students in a rural school. The chosen methodology was action research, utilizing various approaches to comprehend concepts like atoms, molecules, elements, and substances. The findings demonstrated that integrating the philosophy of chemistry into chemistry teaching can significantly enhance students' understanding of micro and macroscopic concepts in rural education.