Developing Student Process Skills in a General Chemistry Laboratory

Abstract

Laboratory coursework is widely considered to be an integral part of chemistry undergraduate degree programs, although its impact on students’ chemistry knowledge is largely unsubstantiated. Laboratory experiences provide opportunities to learn skills beyond chemistry content knowledge, such as how to use scientific instrumentation appropriately, how to gather and analyze data, and how to work in a team. The acquisition of process skills, including critical thinking, problem solving, and communication, is an integral part of becoming a scientist and participating in the scientific community. As apprentice scientists, chemistry students interact with each other in a context-rich environment where the need for process skills can arise organically. This study seeks to understand the role of laboratory courses in developing process skills. Students in a first-year chemistry laboratory course used rubrics to assess their own process skills. During the course, the students also received feedback via rubrics from a teaching assistant trained in rubric use. Additionally, students reported their understanding of process skills and their perceived improvements over the course of the semester. Our results suggest that students understand group dynamics process skills such as teamwork and communication better than they understand cognitive process skills such as critical thinking and information processing. While the evidence further suggests that students improved their process skills, and students reported that they improved their process skills, they showed inconsistent abilities to self-assess and provide justification for their assessment using rubrics.

Rubrics to assess critical thinking and information processing in undergraduate STEM courses

“…3), although there may have been a ceiling effect for the evaluating and the manipulating and transforming (extent) categories in information processing for organic chemistry laboratory reports because many students earned the highest possible score (five) for those categories. However, other implementations of the ELIPSS rubrics (Reynders et al, 2019) have shown more variation in student scores for the two process skills.…”

Effectiveness of inquiry‐based science laboratories for improving teamwork and problem‐solving skills and attitudes

“…The seemingly contradictory findings of previous inquiry-based science course research regarding changes in learners' attitudes to teamwork and problem-solving (Cresswell & Loughlin, 2017;Fakayode, 2014;Frisch et al, 2018;Reynders et al, 2019) imply that learners may have differential learning outcomes. The results of this study help to address these inconsistencies by demonstrating the relationship between learner differences and learning growth in the context of collaborative problem-solving.…”

“…Inquiry-based laboratory courses have been found both to rely on effective teamwork and to facilitate more complicated teamwork among students (Allen et al, 1996;Kalivas, 2008;Winkelmann et al, 2014). Some recent science education studies indicate that inquiry-based courses improve teamwork skills (Dorfman et al, 2020;Reynders et al, 2019), teamwork spirit, satisfaction with teamwork (Fakayode, 2014), and perceptions of the significance and usefulness of teamwork in science (Anderson, 2011). However, some studies have produced mixed results.…”

“…The diverse methods employed in existing studies may contribute to the inconsistency of findings. For example, studies based on interview data are more likely to report positive changes in students' attitudes to teamwork (Dorfman et al, 2020;Reynders et al, 2019) than studies using pre-and post-course survey data (Gormally, 2017;Winkelmann et al, 2014).…”

“…The effectiveness of inquiry-based science learning has been examined on a wide range of learning outcomes, including content knowledge, conceptual understanding, science literacy, confidence, teamwork skills, attitudes to teamwork, and creativity (Cacciatore & Sevian, 2009;Cresswell & Loughlin, 2017;Frisch et al, 2018;Reynders et al, 2019;Shultz & Li, 2016;Shymansky et al, 1983;Simonson & Shadle, 2013;Wallace et al, 2003;Winkelmann et al, 2014). However, little is known about the differential learning outcomes of students taking inquiry-based laboratory courses.…”