The Action "Wanted!": The Concept of Valency during the Early Steps of Mastering Chemistry

We apply the theory of step-by-step concept formation (Galperin) and the theory of learning activity (Davydov) to the practice of education and teacher training.

This paper describes a feasible way to teach the basics of Galperin's theory to students studying pedagogical psychology, by involving them in an exemplary educational module on combining chemical formulas according to the elements' valency values.

We suggested that our students participate in an educational module which was designed as an example of how to materialize orientation components of action as the basis of concept formation. The "practical" action for mastering the valency concept was to combine the correct formula for a pair of elements, whose valency was provided, and correct the formulas made by someone else. However, the core "orientation" required an extended procedure of building a "molecule" structure with a special construction kit. The key challenge for the students was to coordinate their calculation of the number of bonds needed for the molecule, and name the exact total before they would receive their atom-tokens for constructing the model.

Our workshop participants took on the role of students facing their first encounter with chemistry, and embarked on the formation sequence. At the same time they analyzed the mistakes they had made by ignoring some procedural steps. Considered through the lens of Galperin's theory, these "adult" mistakes proved how vital his theoretical principles are for educational design.

Our workshop thus illustrated that the search for the proper action for concept formation within Galperin's theory framework is a challenging task. The difficulties that our participants experienced while they worked as pupils revealed the divergence of didactic approaches. The effectiveness of the concept formation approach, even within our small exemplary educational module, once again confirmed the practical value of pedagogical psychology in general, and Galperin's theory in particular.