Ruby Hanson

• Professor
• Dean of Academic Faculty at University of Education, Winneba

This study explores a pathway for the integration of systems thinking into the teaching of green chemistry for a more holistic and sustainable education.

This paper presents the views of chemistry teachers about systems thinking through the concept of sustainability. The need for this study arose from the fragile nature of the climate, ecosystems and societies and how teachers as the drivers of new ideas for social, cultural, economic and financial development must play a role to maintain the earth'...

Indigenous science is fast becoming a pathway to teach the principles of sustainability and green science or green chemistry towards sustainable development, management and conservation of the world’s ecosystems for posterity. This study sought to explore students’ own ideas about sustainability and ‘green’ practices through the indigenous multi-st...

InTROduCTIOn: The demand and consumption of vegetables are significantly increasing worldwide, which has resulted in urban farming on anthropogenic sites. This study assessed the concentrations of some selected heavy metals in lettuce and spring onion in line with the WHO/FAO required standard and its implications on human health.

Introduction The demand and consumption of vegetables are significantly increasing worldwide, which has resulted in urban farming on anthropogenic sites. This study assessed the concentrations of some selected heavy metals in lettuce and spring onion in line with the WHO/FAO required standard and its implications on human health. Methods The study...

This study investigated the incidental English second-language (ESL) vocabulary development of 125 science university students over two years, as well as their productive vocabulary knowledge in relation to academic achievement. The study was conducted in Ghana, a typical postcolonial ESL country in West Africa. Results showed that productive knowl...

This study analyzed third-year undergraduate Chemistry major students’ drawings and written explanations of substitution reactions. Seventy (70) students were purposively selected for this study. The main data collection instrument was a diagnostic test and students’ responses were analyzed using deductive coding. The study aimed to unearth student...

Students Team Achievement Division model of cooperative learning was employed to examine its effect on the learning outcome of students in the concept of nomenclature of hydrocarbons. Forty-one (41) students were purposively sampled for the study. The study employed an action research design. Pre and post-intervention tests were conducted before an...

The laudable intent of science and industrialization for the ease, long life and comfort of humans has resulted in degradation of the ecosystem as pollutants from chemical production and their use end up in the ecosystem and exert detrimental effects on systems. This damaging effect has translated into climate change, food crisis, financial crisis,...

Residue concentrations of systemic insecticides were analysed in cocoa beans sampled from the Western North Region. The objectives of the study were to assess the residue concentrations of 11 systemic insecticides in the sampled cocoa beans, and compare the residue concentrations detected with the European Union's Maximum Residue Limit (MRL) of coc...

1. Science is a discipline that requires practical experience. It cannot be understood just by classroom training. Students will understand the important concepts in science only if they can apply the knowledge gained in the classrooms during practical activities in the laboratory. Laboratory activities are necessary for understanding many chemistr...

This study examined the ability of 103 undergraduate chemistry students to understand how to illustrate and name monocyclic organic compounds using molecular models in a case study that employed the action research approach. The theory that underpinned the study was constructivism. The model proved to be a powerful tool that allowed participants to...

Multi-residue concentrations of systemic pesticides were analysed in cocoa beans sampled from the Western North region. This study's main objectives were to determine whether it was safe to consume cocoa products from the Western North Region by evaluating the residue concentrations of 11 systemic insecticides, 16 systemic fungicides, and 10 system...

This study examined how exemplary materials improve students' performance and retention in hybridisation. A quasi-experimental pretest-posttest-post-posttest non-equivalent design was used with a modified Solomon four-group design, using hybridisation conception achievement tests (HCATs). A multistage sampling technique was used to sample four inta...

The study investigated chemistry students' knowledge and practices of chemical waste management in chemistry laboratories in a higher educational institution in Ghana. Descriptive survey design was employed, and the stratified sample comprised of 93 chemistry major students who were selected from levels 100, 200 and 300 in University of Education,...

Students can perceive STEM in a number of ways that can affect what they gain from STEM curricula. This qualitative study characterises secondary school students' perspectives of integrated STEM lessons using the theoretical framework of phenomenography, to see how they interpret and conceptualise STEM for now and the future. Thirteen participants...

This study investigated the effectiveness of flipped classrooms in improving pre-service science teachers' performance in kinetic molecular theory of matter. It was carried out at Kibi Presbyterian College of Education in the South Abuakwa Municipality of the Eastern Region of Ghana. A classroom action research design was used for this study. The s...

Objective Data quality is critical in ensuring sound healthcare decision making and service delivery. Data quality provided at all levels of health care enhances accurate and timely information for effective and efficient health service delivery decision making. The study sought to assess the Sunyani West Municipality’s Expanded Programme on Immuni...

This chapter has eulogised on sustainability, sustainability development, education for sustainable development, humanitarianism and humanitarian engineering, to a small extent. The need to create sustainable communities of sustainable-literate and humanitarian-literate citizens through chemistry education has been emphasised. The case of graduate...

The purpose of the study was to explore science tutors’ knowledge of differentiated instruction in the Colleges of Education in the Volta Region of Ghana. The study employed sequential explanatory design. The participants were 32 science tutors from Colleges of Education in the Volta Region of Ghana, who were purposively selected on the basis of ha...

While pre-service science teachers are an important group of stakeholders in a nation’s pursuit of scientific literacy, scientific development and technological advancement in this modern era, this study sought to determine any gender differences in performance in Integrated Science among third year pre-service senior high school science teachers a...

This study was aimed at assessing students’ engagement in an integrated indigenous knowledge-chemistry lesson (IIK-CL) designed using the processes involved in cassava dough production. The paper focuses on the behavioural, emotional and cognitive engagement and their impact on students’ construction of knowledge of the factors affecting rate of ch...

This article is about determining the bacteriological quality of water produced at the Kwanyaku Water Treatment Plant in the Central Region of Ghana. The presence of pathogens in drinking water may result from source water contamination by human and animal activities, followed by improper or insufficient treatment. The study was conducted to assess...

This presentation looked at trainees’ prior knowledge structures about chemical bonds and how remediation could be offered, if necessary.

A gender workshop/seminar to create awareness on Biases and Stereotypic behaviours and how to address them, especially as leaders

This study shows how diagnostic tests and simple, conceptual-based, fun time chemistry activities enhance understanding of chemistry concepts

This study aimed at enhancing pre-service teachers’ understanding and attitudes toward naming and reactions of organic compounds using the jigsaw approach. It was a descriptive study that used a quantitative approach in collecting the data for analysis. The research design was a quasi-experimental one, which adapted the non-randomised control group...

This article concerns how the various themes or categories that emerged from the study could be integrated into curricula to enhance STEM studies, as found from students' perceptions.

It is about equipping girls with some necessary requisite skills for lifelong living.

The role of chemistry in building sustainable cities to mitigate global humanitarian challenges

This presentation is an exposition of the contribution of chemistry to the existing global challenges that society currently faces, as outlined by the UN SDGs and how chemical education could teach the required skills, principles, and appreciation of the current situation from a humanistic viewpoint through a holistic, sustainability, and systems t...

The time has come for the natural and social scientists to integrate their disciplines for the acquisition of skills to solve real life challenges. This study was premised on the belief that the principles of systems thinking, humanitarianism, sustainability, security, and love, which feature prominently in the social sciences could be integrated i...

This study investigated the use of collaborative instructional approaches on Form two science students' performance in redox reactions. The sample for this study consisted of 106 science students from Winneba Senior High School-Ghana. The sample was selected from two intact classes in the school. After a pre-test organised for both classes, the cla...

The purpose of this chapter is to describe a possible best practice to teaching chemistry from a humanitarian engineering perspective. The interest in teaching chemistry by focusing on humanitarian engineering arises from the economic and environmental concerns that the country of this study faces, some of which are poverty, climatic changes, food...

This paper examines how the use of micro chemistry equipment can support effective practical lessons in schools to minimize cost, save the environment, and promote contextualization of theory. It particularly assesses the relevance of scaling down activities to sustainable development as well as gains in scientific conception, reduced exposure to h...

This study sought to use simple, less costly, robust equipment and constructivist pedagogies, that promote and foster learning, to enable an intact class of 81 teacher trainees in a teaching programme to form their own authentic concepts through fun-filled, engaging social interactions. Data were collected by means of two-tier diagnostic assessment...

The purpose of the study was to determine the perceptions that senior high school (SHS) chemistry students and teachers have about organic chemistry as well as to compare organic chemistry topics that are difficult for students and teachers. Simple random sampling (lottery) and purposive sampling methods were used to select a sample of one hundred...

The study assessed the alternative conceptions that first-year teacher trainees have about intermolecular forces. Descriptive research design was adopted to examine the current situation as it exist. The sample involved 82 first-year chemistry major teacher trainees in the University of Education, Winneba. Purposively sampling technique was used to...

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Laboratory safety and safety rules are necessary to ensure the safety of all laboratory users. It is also to ensure that users do not harbour fears of uneventful circumstances so that they all work freely for best results. The study investigated Ghanaian first year university chemistry teacher trainees' understanding of safety rules and symbols whi...

This study determined the effect of an interactive approach to teaching and learning on students' performance in selected concepts in Integrated Science. The study took place at the University of Education, Winneba, in the Central Region of Ghana. First year Integrated Science students were purposively selected for the study. The sample of the stud...

This study determined the effect of an interactive approach to teaching and learning on students' performance in selected concepts in Integrated Science. The study took place at the University of Education, Winneba, in the Central Region of Ghana. First year Integrated Science students were purposively selected for the study. The sample of the stud...

The study explored the correlation between learning style preferences of high school students and their academic performances in science in the Gomoa East district of Ghana. An exploratory survey design with quantitative approach was employed. Ontology and epistemology were the philosophical paradigms that guided the study. Stratified sampling tech...

There is no doubt that hands-on activities are best practice for learning science, as they make students feel like scientists and enable them to build their own concepts from first-hand experiences. However, the cost of obtaining equipment and chemicals, especially for chemistry activities is not only exorbitant but comes with its own risks. This p...

Students tend to perform well in free space learning environments as they are able to put forth ideas that teachers can harness. This study reviewed an integrated STEM constructivist, gender-friendly style that enabled the implementation of students' ideas, transformation of learning environments, instruction, and assessment procedures into meaning...

Worksheets hold the potential for providing active learning environments. This study describes the use of worksheet activities based on alternative concepts from a two-tiered diagnostic assessment on chemical phenomena to remediate 37 first year non-major chemistry pre-service teachers' alternative conceptions about word chemical equations in a Gha...

Tiered diagnostic tools enable learners’ conceptual challenges to be unearthed. They have been used in recent times to facilitate better teaching and learning strategies to offset identified teaching and learning barriers. This study illuminatively evaluated the impact of two-tier tools in diagnosing the conceptual problems of 118 undergraduate tea...

This study developed an e-resource for six topics and six activities for CHE 242 that could be implemented through the hybrid learning approach. The research employed the analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation model but particularly focused on the analysis phase only, in this study. One hundred and two students who enrolled i...

Chemistry education researchers have shown growing interest in the strategies that teachers employ to diagnose students' prior knowledge and attempt remediation, where necessary, as most concepts in chemistry look abstract. The ways in which Ghanaian teachers identify and address their students' alternative conceptions, especially in the study of c...

Research has it that diagnostic tools lead to better teaching and learning strategies as teachers are able to unearth students’ deep-seated learning challenges. An illuminative assessment approach was therefore employed to assess how two-tier diagnostic assessments that are alleged to possess inherent capacities to diagnose students’ learning diffi...

This study involved five postgraduate teacher trainees at the University of Education (UEW), Ghana, who were on a summer programme. A Moodle Learning Management System, videos and micro teaching sessions were employed to provide and equip the teacher trainees with the needed pedagogical skills, while questionnaires, WhatsApp social media platform,...

Unearthing pre-tertiary students’ reasoning patterns about elements, mixtures and compounds Ruby Hanson and Arkoful Sam Abstract This study examined pre-tertiary students’ reasoning patterns about the structure of matter after they received concept-based instruction. The one-group, pre-test, post-test, and delayed-post-test design was employed to...

This study investigated the efficacy of using Science Writing Heuristics (SWH) and Modelling and Modelling Skills (MMS) by students to predict the geometries of metal complexes. A case study design within the Model of Educational Reconstruction approach was used. The accessible population were all third-year chemistry students in the University of...

: This study determined the effect of an interactive approach to teaching and learning on students’ performance in selected topics in Integrated Science. The study took place at the University of Education, Winneba, in the central region of Ghana. First year integrated science students were purposively selected for the study. The sample of the stud...

The research was a case study designed to investigate inclusive education practices in a science class at a Basic School in Winneba, Ghana where inclusive education is practised as in all ten regions. The sample for the study consisted of one head teacher, a science teacher, three interpreters and one resource teacher from the Basic School. The mai...

ABSTRACT In this study, diagnostic worksheets adopted from the Royal Society of Chemistry and microscale chemistry activities were employed to investigate teacher trainees’ understanding of chemical compounds. The framework for the study was hinged on the constructivist theory. Participants in this study were 36 1st-year undergraduate teacher train...

There is no doubt that hands-on activities are best practice for learning science, as they make students feel like scientists and enable them to build their own concepts from first-hand experiences. However, the cost of obtaining equipment and chemicals, especially for chemistry activities is not only exorbitant but comes with its own risks. This p...

The research assessed secondary school students' conceptions of acid-base strengths by using the conceptual change instruction accompanied with concept maps and analogies. These teaching strategies were employed to help them make unfamiliar events familiar. Within a quasi-experimental design, the sample of the study consisted of 73 secondary school...

A shade-dried pulverised sample of the whole root of Blumea auirta var. foliolosa was exhaustively extracted with cold chloroform. Chromatographic technique was used to purify two compounds. Spectroscopic methods and other analytical techniques identified the compounds as 2-(pentadinyl-1, 3)-5-(3, 4-dihydoxy-butylnyl-1)-thiophene and stigmasterol,...

Students' alternative conceptions of some aspects of coordination chemistry namely nomenclature and geometry, geometrical isomerism, bonding and colours in complexes differ greatly from scientific concepts. This study investigated the causes of students' alternative conceptions and how they express these conceptions in coordination chemistry. A cas...

This study assessed the practices and knowledge about environmental sanitation and hygiene among urban dwellers in Gomoa East District in the Central Region of Ghana. A cross sectional survey research design was adopted for the study. Random sampling technique was used in selecting 360 inhabitants in three urban communities. A structured questionna...

This research work analysed the quality of some important physico-chemical parameters of industrial effluents collected from two soap factories (A and B) in the Tema industrial area. In the study, PO4-, NH3, BOD, COD, TSS and turbidity for both factories were high compared to the EPA standards. Measures of NO3-, total hardness, calcium, and chlorid...

Science educators have for years, stressed on the importance of science activities to help students understand the theory and practice of science, as it influences everything about the life of an individual to that of an entire community. This chapter would like to do a conceptual and attitudinal analysis to assess the possibilities that the mass a...

This paper reveals teacher trainees’ over-reliance on the octet model. It assesses the nature and possible origins of these conceptions. One hundred and thirty-eight teacher trainees in a teaching university, who were purposely selected, participated in this case study. Instruments used in gathering data were worksheets and focus group interviews....

The study was based on Piaget’s theory of Cognitive development and the main aim of the study was to find out if Piaget’s theory on children’s number conservation at the concrete stage holds for Ghanaian early children. Fifty-four (54) kindergarten and lower primary school children were randomly selected from three (3) public and two (3) private sc...

Cooperative learning is the instructional use of small groups of learners so that they work together to maximize their own and each other’s learning. This study investigated the use of cooperative learning to enhance the performance of upper primary pupils in science. A mixed method approach with a quasi-experimental design was used. The access pop...

The study assessed the efficacy of hands-on activities on students’ academic achievement and attitude in learning ionic and covalent bonds in a senior high and a technical school in Ghana. The sample size for the study was 30 and comprised of 22 males and 8 females who were purposively sampled for the study. The main instruments used to collect dat...

The study assessed the efficacy of hands-on activities on students’ academic achievement and attitude in learning ionic and covalent bonds in a senior high and a technical school in Ghana. The sample size for the study was 30 and comprised of 22 males and 8 females who were purposively sampled for the study. The main instruments used to collect dat...

The study involved 12 undergraduate teacher trainees who embarked on several 3-step sequenced laboratory activities to assess how it would affect their conceptual understanding of some analytical chemistry concepts in a conceptual laboratory. A quasi experimental approach was adopted. Results from the study showed that majority of the trainees pref...

An in-depth constructivist and interpretive study was carried out with 31 students from a Ghanaian High School over a period of three weeks in order to elicit their interpretations, concerns, and constructions of word equations. This was a qualitative research to generate, analyse, and interpret data from individual narratives and translate ideas b...

Teacher trainees with misconceptions about chemical phenomena tend to pass this on to their students, thereby creating a vicious cycle of misconceptions which are often difficult to break among learners. This article presents the use of micro chemistry activities and worksheet activities in remediating identified alternative conceptions about types...

This study explored high school students' reasoning patterns towards conceptual change and academic achievement as they learned to construct concepts in basic organic chemistry through everyday experiences for life. Analysis revealed a number of patterns by which students constructed ideas in formal and contextual aspects. A formal procedure used t...

The use of tiered worksheets and interpretive procedures to find out teacher trainees’ conceptions about basic types of chemical bonds are presented in this paper. The research was carried out with 71 first year Chemistry education teacher trainees purposely sampled from two teaching universities. Their answers were analysed in order to understand...

In recent years, researchers have shown an interest in understanding students' own ideas about basic chemical principles and guiding them through innovative ways to gain conceptual understanding where necessary. This research was a case study designed to assess 50 first year high school students' conceptual understanding about changes in matter, wi...

2)4: 214-221] © 2016 IJSRST | Volume 2 | Issue 4 | Print ABSTRACT Researchers have shown interest in how beginning chemistry teacher trainees can improve on their technological pedagogical content knowledge so as to be able to engage their students in concept-based and reflective activities. This is a task that trainees have to build up on their ow...

A conference towards a vision of education for sustainable development in Africa

The study aimed to employ small scale science activities to demonstrate and enhance the idea of reversibility of chemical changes in closed systems during chemical equilibrium at the microscopic level among 115 integrated science students. The activities implemented were based on an embedded conceptual change approach. The research tools consisted...

This study explored the use of concept-designed practical activities with small scale science equipment to eliminate teacher trainees’ misconceptions about the concepts of ‘quantity’, ‘concentration’, ‘amount of substance’, and ‘chemical equilibrium’ which were identified through a two-tiered diagnostic test (Hanson, 2016). The study adopted an act...

2)4: 214-221] © 2016 IJSRST | Volume 2 | Issue 4 | Print ABSTRACT Researchers have shown interest in how beginning chemistry teacher trainees can improve on their technological pedagogical content knowledge so as to be able to engage their students in concept-based and reflective activities. This is a task that trainees have to build up on their ow...

2)4: 214-221] © 2016 IJSRST | Volume 2 | Issue 4 | Print ABSTRACT Researchers have shown interest in how beginning chemistry teacher trainees can improve on their technological pedagogical content knowledge so as to be able to engage their students in concept-based and reflective activities. This is a task that trainees have to build up on their ow...

The study explored the use of directed concept-based practical activities premised on a 6-step conceptual change model with small scale science equipment to enhance pre-service teachers’ conceptual understanding of quantity of matter and its effect on equilibrium position. The research tools consisted of two concept-based small scale science activi...

Chemical stoichiometry is a conceptual framework that encompasses other concepts such as the mole, writing of chemical equations in word and representative form, balancing of equations and the equilibrium concept. The underlying concepts enable students to understand relationships among entities of matter and required amounts for use when necessary...

The study was conducted to explore Scientists' and Students' perspectives on metal complex isomerism. These correspondences formed a powerful grain for conceptual change in content-oriented instruction for 15 third year chemistry major students at the University of Education, Winneba-Ghana. The interpretive case study was used to explore students'...

The general knowledge of coordination chemistry, nomenclature and geometry was characterised by domain-specific students`students`conceptions as observed in this study. Based on the Model of Educational Reconstruction (MER), a clarification of coordination chemistry content structure was developed and made available for teaching. Generated concepti...

Micro chemistry experimentation has come to reduce the usual traditional experimentation through miniature activities. In addition it has reduced activity time and the cost of resources significantly and yet provided personal hands-on experiences for learners. This study presents the design of micro chemistry experimentation for some quantitative a...

Faculty of Graduate Studies Presentation

The study developed a diagnostic instrument to identify misconceptions that teacher trainees have of chemistry topics in relation to ionic and covalent bonding. Students’ initial ideas on these topics were collated through classroom discourse, Treagust’s (1988) and Tan and Treagust’s (1999) adapted diagnostic tests, concept maps and whole class int...

Hybridisation is a concept which students have difficulty in understanding. Majority of students perceive that the bonding is ionic in nature. After students’ perceptions were gathered and found to be based on weak logical understanding of the concept, they were taken through a treatment period and their conceptions about hybridisation re-tested. T...

The impact of technology on society is as old as the emergence of radios televisions and telephones. Technology has spread from our homes to schools, work places, grocery shops and wherever human presence can be found in broader and more complex dimensions now. It is therefore important that educational institutions formally and consciously integra...

Practical work increases comprehension of scientific concepts and so is advocated as an important factor in the teaching and learning of especially chemistry, where most concepts appear abstract. Yet the growing cost of science materials and increasing numbers of students make the regular and efficient performance of chemistry activities difficult....

This article summarises experiences in using the hybrid approach in delivering courses online in a teaching university in Ghana. The rationale for moving face-to-face classes online was in response to a University strategic plan to encourage lecturers to use educational technologies to enhance teaching and learning. The design and implementation of...

Faculty and students’ impressions about hybrid e-courses were assessed through observation and interviews. Challenges faced by both Faculty and students were documented for future reference purposes and improvement in the teaching and learning process in the University of Education, Winneba, Ghana.

Conference presentation in South Africa

The research looked into the misconceptions held by prospective teachers about atomic orbitals and hybridization. A total of 88 undergraduate students were used in the study in the University of Education, Winneba, Ghana. The participants responded to multiple choice and constructed response questions on hybridization at the start of the research....