The Use of Electronic Media for Chemical Education Research

Abstract

During spring 2010, I taught a one-semester survey course of general chemistry (CHEM 114). Some of these chemistry students also elected to participate in the university’s Structured Learning Assistance Program. These Structured Learning Assistance students met with an advanced undergraduate student for extra instruction. Structured Learning Assistance students typically outperformed the non-Structured Learning Assistance students in many markers for course success in prior semesters. What happens in the SLA sections? The answer to this question could potentially improve my entire CHEM 114 course and student learning in general.

Student learning logs provide a remarkable window into student learning. Since 2007, I have used electronic “learning logs” in my chemistry classroom to improve learning. On a weekly basis, my students summarize their week’s work: lecture notes, laboratory tasks/experiments, and online homework. Students are also asked to reflect on the past week’s work and write down their questions, difficulties, and feelings. As a result, large amounts of high-quality information can be easily collected.

Learning logs from SLA students were used to identify SLA activities and related reflections from their perspective. Based upon qualitative analysis, SLA students frequently reported formative evaluation and question and answer sessions as SLA activities. Ultimately, this research illustrates the utility of electronic media for education research and teacher development.

Appendix 1

1.1 Codes & Subcodes with Their Operational Definitions Used for SLA Passages

• 1. SLA Activities – Anything done in SLA (as recalled by a student and/or deemed relevant)

  • 1.1. Review Content

  • 1.2. Metacognitive Activities

    • 1.2.1. Self-Assessment Tests/Surveys (e.g., Procrastination Survey)

    • 1.2.2. Weekly Assessment of Learning Activities – Each student lists (checks off) the activities performed during the prior week and the time spent on the individual activities and as a total.

    • 1.2.3. “Warm-up” learning log activity – students spend 5–10 min writing a summary of the week’s work

    • 1.2.4. Assessment activities related to testing

      • 1.2.4.1. Prior to receiving test results (e.g., reviewing overall effort made by the student)

      • 1.2.4.2. After receiving test results (e.g., going over mistakes made on tests)

  • 1.3. Formative Evaluation

    • 1.3.1. “Warm-up” questions – Problems assigned at the beginning of the class for students to work on an individual basis.

    • 1.3.2. Pretests and/or old tests – question sets given to students for self-assessment

  • 1.4. Question & Answer Activities – coded according to type of interactions

    • 1.4.1. Entire class involved in activity (e.g., answers posted on board and discussed as a class)

    • 1.4.2. Small groups

    • 1.4.3. Individual (between student and SLA instructor and/or tutor OR with another SLA student)

  • 1.5. Peer tutoring – student describes her or his activities as a peer tutor

  • 1.6. Work on homework/handouts

    • 1.6.1. Textbook problems

    • 1.6.2. Best Choice problems

    • 1.6.3. Problem sets generated by SLA

  • 1.7. Workshop Activities –programs/small group activities with a specific learning outcome

    • 1.7.1. Learning Styles Workshop

    • 1.7.2. Textbook/study skills workshop

    • 1.7.3. Problem Solving Workshop – specific activity developed by Professor Burns, which focused on problem solving skills. SLA students worked in small groups with tutors from Honors Program (and SLA instructors) and solved a series of problems on a worksheet.

  • 1.8. Game Activities (e.g., Bingo and Jeopardy)

  • 1.9. Other

    • 1.9.1. To be used only if other categories do not apply

    • 1.9.2. After coding, all of the “SLA Activities – Other” will be collected and reviewed as a set.

• 2. Student Reflections

  • 2.1. Feelings – use of feeling words, such as “I was bored with last night’s activities” or “I am confused by significant figure rules.”

  • 2.2. Value Judgments

    • 2.2.1. I like (or dislike) balancing equations

    • 2.2.2. States something is useful (or useless)

    • 2.2.3. Judges an outcome as successful or otherwise

  • 2.3. Problems/Issues

    • 2.3.1. Conceptual problems, such as having stating difficulty with balancing charges.

    • 2.3.2. Issues, such as students not talking in lecture.

  • 2.4. Successes

    • 2.4.1. “Measurable” success, such as a reporting specific test scores or laboratory outcome

    • 2.4.2. “Immeasurable” success, such as “I understand Lewis Structures better due to Hanna.”

  • 2.5. Review – connected concept(s) with prior exposures, such as in “I covered this material in high school”

  • 2.6. Plan of Action – a statement of either the need for a particular action (e.g., I need to work on more practice problems) or the intention to engage in a particular action (e.g., I plan to work on more practice problems).

  • 2.7. Other – used when the student is reflecting upon material in some fashion, but does not appear to fall into the above categories.

    • 2.7.1. To be used only if other categories do not apply

    • 2.7.2. After coding, all of the “Student Reflections – Other” will be collected and reviewed as a set.