Instructional design for teaching analytical chemistry in English as a foreign language

Abstract

The article summarises the experience of teaching analytical chemistry in English to Chinese first-year undergraduate students during 2019-2023. During this period, about 800 students with five years of enrollment in two specialities (biotechnology and chemical technology and engineering) were trained at Kyiv College of the Qilu University of Technology (China). The key problem of the initial stage of training in 2019-2020 was the contradiction between the gradual improvement of students’ knowledge of the English language over the years of enrollment and the simultaneous deterioration of chemical knowledge. Teaching materials and teaching methods during the period were based on multimedia lecture courses at the Kyiv National University of Technology and Design. Curricula and programs remained unchanged throughout the studied period. The instructional design of lecture courses was gradually and purposefully optimised to eliminate the invented problems and minimise the negative impact of the pandemic (in the period 2020-2021 and partially 2022). The optimisation was based on the principles of the theory of cognitive load. Particular attention was paid to mastering chemical knowledge at the micro, macro and symbolic levels and forming connections between these three levels. The applied changes in educational materials stabilised examination results in analytical chemistry during the COVID-19 period and contributed to their improvement after quarantine.