How to tell if your child needs extra help in chemistry

Introduction

The subject of Chemistry or chemistry itself, can be said to sit at the crossroads of Physics and Biology. It’s a subject that requires both theoretical knowledge and practical experience that thus can aid students in visualisation of chemical reactions and so on. So how do you as a parent, tell if your child needs extra help in Chemistry?

Also to look at it from another angle. Would your child benefit with extra help in learning and understanding chemistry? Could they perhaps have better understanding across fields of future work that involved medicine, engineering, and so on?

Why Chemistry is both practical and abstract

Chemistry’s main focuses are the macroscopic perspective and the sub-microscopic, the macroscopic are the chemicals you mix, the different reactions you witness when metals mix with other metals, Chromatography, Distillation, Electrolysis, Fermentation, etc… As such a hands on experience in understanding these concepts for the average student can be rewarding.

The submicroscopic is the unseen and acknowledged architecture that fundamentally explains why elements in the periodic table behaves the way they do.

This is what makes Chemistry both extraordinary and interesting to teach.

At the Chembase Academy, a key component of the learning environment is the experimentation lab that helps students to understand, visualise, and be able to answer theoretical questions with a solid understanding of the different behaviours and reactions.

So what’s next beyond the student taking accurate notes, sketching diagrams, and witnessing quality demonstrations, and yet receiving a report card that perhaps doesn’t mirror all that hard work?

Indicators that your child might need some extra help

1. “The effort is there. The outcome isn’t.”

Your child is struggling. Yet you see that he or she is actively putting in effort in self-study. Hours spent perhaps studying theoretical concepts. And so on.

As such, this could potentially be a sign they don’t fully comprehend what they’re studying. When this layer exists it adds another where they just want to get back on their phone. Or find a different distraction.

You can’t always “try harder” your way through something you don’t understand.

Perhaps what may help them is a change in teaching approach and environment. Maybe stop studying for a while. Find a different activity, a change of scenery.

It’s also a possibility that not every place of learning may have practical demonstrations or lessons. And when it comes to chemistry, theory and practice definitely need to go in hand in hand.

Under the Chembase brand, Professor Imran Razeek helps students anywhere in the world who do not have a hands-on facility in their vicinity, with an online portal through which they may actively witness these practical aspects of the subject. This is both for the Edexcel and Cambridge syllabuses for O/L, AS, and A2 and also for students in general studying chemistry for O/L, AS or A2.

And for students who would prefer a more on-premise experience, there are definitely many places of learning that have practical hands-on experimentation etc, and one of the places in particular for students in Sri Lanka is the Chembase Institution.

2. “Everything sounds vague”

Ask them what’s difficult about chemistry? What’s interesting about it?

You might hear things like:

“It’s confusing.”

“Nothing, I wanna drop it”

“There’s too much.”

“I don’t get it.”

Which is it?

But nothing specific. This could matter.

Because when a student can’t name the problem, it could perhaps mean that they’ve lost track of it for a while, and the problem remains.

3. They avoid it – but won’t admit it

Watch what they do, not what they say.

Do they always leave chemistry for last? Do they suddenly need a break when it’s time to study it? Do they switch subjects quickly? None of these on their own confirms a problem. But repeated over time this may convey a level of hesitation.

We can’t say that avoidance is about discipline. Rather avoidance could be due to discomfort.

As a parent, maybe you don’t want to ask your child the question, “Why aren’t you studying?”

Rather think about it. What might be making this subject harder for them to engage with?

Support your child with less pressure, and more communication, and help them rewind and run it back with clarity. Seek to understand what might be the reason that they’re avoiding the subject.

4. Confidence has changed

This one is subtle. Your child may have done well before, and now they hesitate. They second-guess.

Maybe they’re quieter when chemistry comes up, they tend to study something they are already competent with.

This is could be perhaps when they’ve moved up from O/L to A/L for IGCSE and GCSE where the subject changes significantly.

5. They memorise – but it appears they can’t use it

They know definitions. They can repeat notes. But give them a new question?

They freeze.

“They can list the types of reactions… But they cannot tell what the reaction occurring is and what the products of the reactions are”

That’s not a memory issue. That’s points to a thinking issue.

And chemistry exams – especially Cambridge and Edexcel – are designed to test thinking. Hence students say what they study and what comes for the exam are incomparable at times.

As a parent if you’re helping your student revise, one way to test this is by seeing how they respond to new or slightly unfamiliar questions.

• Can they explain their thinking? Or are they relying particular steps they memorised.
• Notice their behaviour, are they moving around too much.
• Does their perspective change when given reasoning?

It may be a sign, that they require support in focusing on how to approach and think through chemistry questions.

6. “I knew it… I just couldn’t do it in the exam”

It’s frustrating for them. And confusing for you. But why is chemistry so hard?

Here’s the truth:

It’s not hard. Knowing is not the same as performing.

Without structure, even a well-prepared student can fall apart under exam pressure.

They read the question, it looks unfamiliar, they start scrambling their brain for what they have learned, clock feels rigged, and they start beating around the bush.

The student hasn’t learned how to handle it under pressure.

7. They say they’re “fine”

This one could be misleading.

Students don’t always ask for help. Not because they don’t need it. But because sometimes they don’t want to feel behind and weak in that regard.

Some students will have clear awareness of how they are doing, yet they may not always want to or feel comfortable in expressing uncertainty or asking for help directly.

They may be concerned that they didn’t understand the answer they received earlier. Or they may want to wait for someone else to ask instead. Or perhaps decide to self-revise the lesson and if they don’t “get it” to just drop the subject.

These concerns may be the type of conversations they have with themselves. Thus on the exterior, they say they’re just “fine”.

Parents may not always see the red flags as there’s no obvious cry for help.

As Prof. Imran Razeek puts it

“When a student says that they need help, it could mean that they’ve maybe needed it for a while.”

– Prof. Imran Razeek

So what should you do?

As a parent wondering whether your child may need help with Chemistry, whether it be for O/L, AS or A/L (A2), you don’t have to wait for a call from a teacher, or a bad result on your child’s report card to confirm this.

Just simply give some thought and pay attention to some of the factors we mentioned above.

Your child needing help understanding Chemistry is not a failure. In fact, for you to identify the issue early is commendable, and could help get support to the student early.

If you’re unsure, that’s okay. Just pay attention again to some of the signs. And if something feels off, that’s maybe a place to start. Although that said, try to work and communicate with your child and avoid language that may sound accusatory, as that may put your child on the defence. Thus, he or she may not really want to open up about needing that extra help with Chemistry.

 

If you think this article helped you or you think this could help someone else, then share it with someone you care about. Especially your child, and other parents who’s children are studying Chemistry.