CHED 1545 |
| This study explored how undergraduate students in a new problem-centered General Chemistry Laboratory curriculum achieved cognitive growth. The new curriculum had three instructional segments: the highly-structured, semi-structured, and open-ended segments. The pedagogical approaches adopted were expository, guided-inquiry, and open-inquiry styles, respectively. Sixty-seven first-year undergraduate students who enrolled in the course in Spring semester, 2000, at Columbia University and three Ph.D.-level chemistry experts were included in the study. A qualitative approach was used including data collection through "think-aloud" problem solving. The findings from this study confirmed that since students in chemistry courses are coming from increasingly diverse backgrounds, courses adopting a pedagogical approach that includes, (1) sequencing from the more expository to guided- and open-inquiry learning experiences for students, and (2) emphasizing a balance between content, context, concepts, and science processes, seem to be of the type that is more conducive to produce students of the qualities which chemistry educators have described as "ideal." |
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Laboratory Pedagogy: Research-Based Evaluation of Existing Models
1:30 PM-4:10 PM, Wednesday, April 9, 2008 Hilton New Orleans Riverside -- HEC B, Oral
Division of Chemical Education |