Adding Pep to Recitation Sections For five years a t the Illinois Institute of Technology we taught a 5-hr freshman chemistry course for engineering and science majors. One of the major problems which we encountered with this mixture of students was lack of actiue student participation in our recitation sections. After giving a quiz, the instructor normally led a large group discussion of concepts and problems; this invariably developed into a conversation between the instructor and four or five of the more aemessive students. In other wards. most of our students aooeared t o be oassive "answer-seekers" rather than .... . active problem-solving thinkers. In order to make reciratiun more meanindul, several new teehnrques were introduced during the Spring Semester, 1973. These included [he following.
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1) Mini-lecture. A brief (5-min) review of the major concepts covered during the week was given. This served to highlight important points and as the framework for other activities. 2) Small Group Dkemsions. Assigned problems were discussed by dividing the section into groups of 4-5 students and making that group responsible for the presentation of a solution t o a particular problem. Typically, groups were given 5-15 min t o organize their thoughts and then present a solution to the entire class. During this time, the instructor was available to groups far consultation. Most of these small groups were quite active and brought out some participation by everyone in the group. We found that after a few weeks, more work was accomplished by this method than by having the instructor explain all problems. 3) Student Quizzes. Students were asked to write a 10-min quiz hefore recitation class. These were then exchanged and students evaluated each other's quiz writing. 4) Practice Quizzes. Students often complain that the only evaluation of their performance is made by the instructor. In this technique, quiz-like questions were distributed to the students and then discussed and graded in small groups by the students themselves. The students had a classroom Learning experience without the pressure of taking a quiz. 5) Answers to Problems. On several occasions, many long and difficult problems had to he discussed during one period. Detailed answers (emphasizing method of attack) were distributed to the students on ditto sheets for a few of the questions. This provided the conscientious student with a check of his work, and the less conscientious student had no excuse for not having a set of correctly worked problems for review. The reactions of both students and faculty t o these methods were most favorable. Many students said that they leamed more with these techniques and indicated that these practices should be continued in future years. In summary, we feel that these methods appear to be a n excellent alternative to the normal way of conducting recitation seetions.
Timothy A. Kling Lakeland Community College Mentor, Ohio 44060
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Journal of Chemical Education
