Teachers’ Conceptual Difficulties in Teaching Senior High School Organic Chemistry

Teachers are one of the important factors influencing students' learning of chemistry as they (teachers) transform the content for students. When teachers do not have a sound scientific understanding of the chemistry behind the organic concepts considered to be difficult, they are likely, not able to transform sound scientific understanding for their students. Hence, the need to examine the conceptual difficulties of teachers in teaching organic chemistry to senior high school students. Teachers, teaching chemistry in 31 schools were sampled through multi-stage sampling procedures and responded to a diagnostic test on organic chemistry. The data from the test were manipulated using quantitative and qualitative methods, such as means, standard deviations, percentages, and themes. The quantitative results were merged with the qualitative results to examine teachers' conceptual difficulties in organic chemistry. The findings showed that teachers have conceptual difficulties with organic chemistry. This study has added to the literature that teacher conceptual difficulties were partial understanding with misconceptions such as preconceived notions, factual misconceptions, and conceptual misunderstandings. Therefore, in order to deal with those misconceptions, chemistry educators should implement instructional approaches that will help pre-service teachers challenge and deal with their misconceptions in organic chemistry.