EXAMINING CHEMISTRY TEACHERS’ PERCEPTIONS OF THEIR INTERACTION WITH CURRICULUM MATERIALS: A QUANTITATIVE APPROACH

On the basis of the model of the interactive relationship between teachers and curriculum materials, this research proposed the four dimensions of the interaction of chemistry teachers with curriculum materials: ‘routine use’, ‘scientific inquiry’, ‘STSE’ and ‘teacher learning’. An instrument with good validity and reliability was developed. Through a questionnaire survey of 208 junior high school chemistry teachers in three areas in Guangzhou, China, it was found that teachers thought they had a good interaction with curriculum materials, but the level of interaction is not very high. Teachers from different administrative areas were significantly different in the dimensions of ‘STSE’ and ‘teacher learning’; teachers with different years of teaching experience showed significant differences in the dimensions of ‘routine use’, ‘scientific inquiry’ and ‘STSE’. There was no interaction effect between the two variables of the areas and years of teaching. Designing educative curriculum materials and developing teacher training activities in terms of curriculum use are recommended to further improve teachers’ ability to use curriculum materials.