Senior high school chemistry students' understanding of IUPAC nomenclature of organic compounds

Abstract

The WAEC Chief Examiners’ Reports in Ghana have repeatedly lamented the weakness exhibited by most Chemistry students in IUPAC nomenclature of organic compounds in the West Africa Senior Secondary Certificate Examination. This study was a step to determine the knowledge level of some Chemistry students in IUPAC nomenclature of organic compounds. A cross-sectional survey was adopted to collect both quantitative and qualitative data. In all, 245 SHS4 Chemistry students selected fromfour out of 18 schools, which offer elective science for 2010/2011 academic year in the Kumasi Metropolis, were involved in the study. An achievementtest and interview were the main instruments for the data collection. The results show that the students’ performance on IUPAC nomenclature of organic compounds was generally low. The Chemistry students’ difficulties in IUPAC naming of organic compounds included their inability to identify the correct number of carbon atoms in the parent chain, and to identify a substituent or functional group. The Chemistry students also had difficulties in writing structural formulae of organic compounds chiefly their inability to identify from the IUPAC name the correct number of carbon atoms in the parent chain, the chemical symbol or formula of any substituent or functional group, the correct position of and number of multiple bonds, functional, or substituent group. These difficulties having been recognised could help Chemistry teachers to effectively deploy their pedagogical content knowledge in teaching organic Chemistry at the SHS level.