Several studies have highlighted the positive effects that active learning may have on student engagement and performance. However, the influence of active learning strategies is mediated by several factors, including the nature of the learning environment and the cognitive level of in-class tasks. These factors can affect different dimensions of student engagement such as the nature of social processing in student groups, how knowledge is used and elaborated upon by students during in-class tasks, and the amount of student participation in group activities. In this study involving four universities in the US, we explored the association between these different dimensions of student engagement and the cognitive level of assigned tasks in five distinct general chemistry learning environments where students were engaged in group activities in diverse ways. Our analysis revealed a significant association between task level and student engagement. Retrieval tasks often led to a significantly higher number of instances of no interaction between students and individualistic work, and a lower number of knowledge construction and collaborative episodes with full student participation. Analysis tasks, on the other hand, were significantly linked to more instances of knowledge construction and collaboration with full group participation. Tasks at the comprehension level were distinctive in their association with more instances of knowledge application and multiple types of social processing. The results of our study suggest that other factors such as the nature of the curriculum, task timing, and class setting may also affect student engagement during group work.
The ability to build mechanistic explanations of natural phenomena is highly valued in all scientific disciplines, including chemistry. In this paper, we summarize the results of a qualitative study designed to characterize the nature of the mechanistic explanations built by college General Chemistry students when analyzing a physical process involving energy transfer between parts of a system at different temperatures, and a chemical process involving energy transformation and transfer due to chemical bonding. Prior studies have mostly focused on eliciting "what" students think happens in terms of energy transfer when chemical bonds break or form (e.g., energy is absorbed or released) and in this investigation we provide insights into their reasoning about "how" and "why" it happens. Our findings reveal that many students struggle to build sound mechanistic explanations for energy transfer between objects at different temperatures and for energy transformation and transfer during the formation of chemical bonds.
A variety of research studies reveal the advantages of actively engaging students in the learning process through collaborative work in the classroom. However, the complex nature of the learning environment...
Various strategies have been promoted to increase student engagement in collaborative activities in chemistry courses, including the use of small portable whiteboards where students can represent and share ideas. In this paper, we summarize the results of a study designed to investigate how the use of small portable whiteboards during group work affects student engagement. In particular, we paid attention to how the use of whiteboards affected social processing, knowledge dynamics, and student contributions during in-class tasks in a college general chemistry class. Our findings reveal significant differences in student engagement during activities in which whiteboards are used compared to those in which these tools are not used. Although the use of whiteboards correlated with more instances of knowledge construction, overall effects are mixed, as the use of whiteboards more frequently led groups to split in pairs in the observed class. Our results suggest that the use of whiteboards should be carefully planned and managed by instructors to maximize benefits and reduce potential hindrances to collaborative work.
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