Tracking and assessing practical chemistry skills development: practical skills portfolios

Abstract

We present the evaluation of the student response to a novel form of practical assessment: the Practical Skills Portfolio (PSP). The PSP is a concise record of a practical activity for the purposes of assessment, which prompts students to engage in reflective practice on laboratory skills, and provides opportunities for enhanced feedback delivered in a timely manner. Key goals of this new approach are to assist students in assimilating the practical skills they are developing during their studies and to support them in developing their ability to write the different components of a full laboratory report.

Supporting student collaboration in online breakout rooms through interactive group activities

“…As discussed previously (Read, Watts, & Wilson, 2016;Wright, Read, Hughes, & Hyde, 2018), the Science Foundation Year (SFY) at the University of Southampton provides an entry route onto science degree programmes for students who do not have the required qualifications for direct entry, with a typical cohort size of 40-60. Prior to the pandemic, the SFY chemistry module featured 3 chemistry lectures per week and a workshop session (15-20 students) that included collaborative group activities as well as worksheet-based problem sets, with a staff member and two demonstrators present.…”

Thematic Practicum Handbook Theme 2: Student Interests and Critical Thinking Skills for Fourth Grade Elementary School Students

“…Critical thinking is a source of development for students, carried out by implementing a curriculum that is not rigid (Andayani, 2017;Nugraha et al, 2017). Meanwhile, student interest is enhanced by portfolio assessment and learning models in research (Wright et al, 2018;Draijer et al, 2020). Furthermore, the development of a picture book proved to help students in learning.…”

A case study of direct assessment of students’ manipulative skills in chemistry practical: Perspective of lecturers

“…In terms of the methods used to assess students' manipulative skills in science practical, there are basically two main assessment methods, known as post-laboratory write-up and formative assessment of skills development (Wright, Read, Hughes, & Hyde, 2018). The use of post-laboratory write-up, namely scientific report, was widely and commonly adopted to assess a large number of students in a practical class (Wright et al, 2018).…”

“…In terms of the methods used to assess students' manipulative skills in science practical, there are basically two main assessment methods, known as post-laboratory write-up and formative assessment of skills development (Wright, Read, Hughes, & Hyde, 2018). The use of post-laboratory write-up, namely scientific report, was widely and commonly adopted to assess a large number of students in a practical class (Wright et al, 2018). Nevertheless, the formative assessment in Chemistry practical included on-site observation (Chen, She, Chou, Tsai, & Chiu, 2013), use of recorded video for post-laboratory review (Towns, Harwood, Robertshaw, Fish, & O'Shea, 2015), portfolio (Wright et al, 2018), and school-based continuous assessment (such as Science Practical Work Assessment, PEKA) (Lian & Yew, 2013).…”

“…Despite of the growing number of studies indicated the importance of assessing students' manipulative skills in science practical, the use of direct assessment of students' practical skills in Malaysia is still very limited (Fadzil & Saat, 2017). Teachers preferred post-laboratory write-up because direct assessing students' practical skills in a large class was logistically impossible to be implemented (Wright et al, 2018). As a result, the lack of emphasis on the direct assessment of manipulative skills have led to the neglecting of conducting experimental work in schools amongst students and teachers (Abrahams, Reiss, & Sharpe, 2013), declining of time and effort amongst teachers to develop students' manipulative skills (Fadzil & Saat, 2017), and increasing tendency of adopting written lab reports to assess students' manipulative skills (Oloruntegbe, 2010).…”