Demonstration-exploration-discussion: Teaching chemistry with discovery and creativity

Abstract

Documentation of one professor's story of how change toward a student-centered classroom led to a more satisfying experience for both him and his students without compromising achievement.

An Example of a Guided-Inquiry, Collaborative Physical Chemistry Laboratory Course

“…The initiative described here employs many of the learning techniques that have been found to be successful for first-and second-year college science teaching. Students are required to construct their knowledge of an investigation by forming an experimental plan (21,22). They are required to collaborate on relatively open-ended 3-week projects (1-13, 23, 24).…”

“…Not only do students come to lab better prepared, they are more likely to be active participants during the lab. Students retain knowledge that is "constructed" (21,22). By constructing a logical experimental procedure and presenting this in the form of a proposal, students obtain a deeper understanding of the process of science.…”

Creativity and Innovation Among Science and Art

“…It has been argued that no meaningful learning takes place in these laboratory spaces (Tobin and Gallagher 1987) because students spend more time determining if they obtained the correct results rather than thinking about the scientific principles being applied in the laboratory, and also because these traditional laboratory activities are designed to facilitate the development of only lower-order cognitive skills such as rote learning and algorithmic problem solving. Indeed, chemical educators offering pedagogical strategies for promoting student creativity often begin by citing the deficiencies of scripted, expository instruction (Acheron and Kikuth 2005; Drake et al 1994;Buono et al 1973; Ditzler and Ricci 1994;Miller 1993;Venkatachelam and Rudolph 1974;Lipkowitz and Daniel Robertson 2000;Gallet 1988;Zielinski 2009;Scott 2010). Domin has also shown how these different laboratory instructional styles relate to Kuhn's description of the scientific enterprise (Domin 2009).…”

Science on Wheels: A Coherent Link Between Educational Perspectives

“…They give the teachers an opportunity to develop their science skills through hands-on experiences that can be used as demonstrations or handson projects for students. This supervised training prevents teachers from presenting demonstrations and workshops without proper scientific preparation, which can be unsafe, environmentally dangerous, and misleading in terms of the message and purpose of the activity (29)(30)(31)(32).…”

“…The teachers' workshops allow us to provide participants with solid preparation and planning strategies needed to carry out effective science demonstrations and "hands-on" activities for their students. This increases both the probability and the potential degree of success for transfer of information and skills (18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27)(28)(29)(30)(31)(32)(33)(34).…”