This study investigated whether or not selected Jamaican 'A' Level students' understanding of chemical energetics composed of higher order cognitive skills (HOCS) and lower-order cognitive skills (LOCS) items would be statistically significantly better if they were taught using an eclectic approach than those of their counterparts taught with the lecture and teacher demonstration methods. The sample comprised 132 grades 12 and 13 chemistry students consisting of 30 males and 102 females from five randomly selected schools in Kingston, Jamaica (4 high schools and I community college). Data were collected with a chemical energetics test (CET). Results indicated that the eclectic approach used statistically significantly improved the experimental students' posttest performance in the CET on the whole, and on the HOCS and LOCS items, in relation to that of the comparison students.