MODELING AS EMPIRICAL AND THEORETICAL METHOD OF OBTAINING KNOWLEDGE IN CHEMISTRY

The tasks set for the professional education include improving the educational process through searching for new technologies, methods, means and forms of teaching which in general will contribute to improving the quality of students' education. To make the learning activities sensible and commensurate with the students' abilities it is important to create the conditions for differentiation and individualization of the education process when the interests and abilities of the students are taken into greater consideration due to the changes in structure, organization and content of the educational process. One of the relevant methods allowing combining empirical and theoretical approaches, encouraging development of the framework of reality where the knowledge is structured and absorbed through perception is modeling. The paper considers the main features of the method of modeling in which we study the object trough application of a mediating part - model - substitute object and initial original object. When studying chemistry the essence of the chemical processes taking place does not fall under direct student's observation and learning is possible only by building a model of the invisible object according to certain indirect data. That is why modeling can be defined as the basic method of obtaining knowledge in chemistry. The authors characterize modeling as an explanatory-illustrative method, a reproductive method, problematic presentation method, modeling allowing organizing research and development activities. The authors consider the forms of presenting the information when studying chemistry and those of relating elements to each other which allow choosing a certain form of presentation of the studied material.