Chemical Education Today
Reports from Other Journals
An Action Research Report: Improving Pre-Laboratory Preparation of First-Year University Chemistry Students by Kenneth S. Lyle and William R. Robinson
Action research is an emerging research methodology that shows promise as a means for individuals, groups, or organizations to examine their own situations in order to identify problems, discover opportunities for improvement, or implement changes and evaluate the effects. In academic settings action research can be used to examine classroom practice, suggest changes in that practice, and assess the effects of those changes. Action research is the most informal of the naturalistic research methods. It is more pragmatic and utilitarian in nature than other methods; the goal being the development of descriptions of existing situations that “probe below the surface of the obvious and taken for granted”(1). As Patton notes (2) the purpose of action research is not to determine why a modification produced an effect but simply what was the effect. Action research focuses on the here and now, with no intent for generalization. Although sometimes reported in the literature, the outcome of most action research is reported orally or through short written memos within a researcher’s organization. The individuals within the organization are usually the ones who determine the significance of the outcome and decide whether the modification produced the desired improvement. As illustrated in Figure 1, action research can be described as a reiterative process involving several cycles of planning, acting, and evaluation, until an acceptable solution results (3). The Objective is some aspect of student learning that an investigator wishes to improve by a change in instructional practice. The practice could be new or could be one currently in place. Reconnaissance consists of a review of the literature related to the types of practice that can be used to foster the desired learning. The Overall Plan lays out how the particular practice to be investigated will be implemented and the plan for collecting data to determine the effect of the practice. The Action step is the implementation of the practice coupled with data gathering. Monitoring and Evaluation involves data analysis, finding trends in behavior or performance, and suggesting changes, or not, as a consequence of the evaluation. If changes are suggested the process loops in order to modify the overall plan and the cycle is repeated. If the situation is satisfactory the cycle is exited. In addition to providing a teacher with evidence to guide the exploration of how teaching affects students’ learning, action research …encourages a teacher to be reflective of his own practice in order to enhance the quality of education for himself and his pupils. It is a form of self-reflective enquiry that is now being used in school-based curriculum development, professional development, school-improvement
Objective Reconnaissance Overall Plan Action Monitoring & Evaluation
Modify Overall Plan or
either
No Further Changes
Figure 1. An action research flow chart.
schemes, and so on, and as such, it actively involves teachers as participants in their own educational process (4). An Example of Action Research in Education In the International Journal of Science Education, Rolnick, Zwane, Staskun, Lotz, and Green (5) reported an example of the application of action research in evaluating and improving students’ pre-laboratory preparation in a first-year chemistry course at a university in South Africa. The course is essentially a preparatory chemistry course with traditional laboratory work, i.e., instruction-driven laboratory work of a cookbook nature. The students involved were mainly able Black students who had come from economically depressed schools that were staffed by under-qualified teachers, and had provided little or no laboratory experience. For many of these students this was their first exposure to a chemistry teaching laboratory. For most, English was a second language.
Objective The study focused on the effectiveness of different forms of pre-laboratory preparation in helping students do two things: meet the intended objectives of the laboratory and carry out the experiments satisfactorily. The action research cycle began with the general idea that pre-laboratory preparation was critical to a student’s successful completion of the laboratory and important in meeting the intended procedural, conceptual, and communicative objectives of the laboratory.
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Reports from Other Journals Reconnaissance The reconnaissance step consisted of a review of the literature in order to determine whether the general idea had empirical support. According to the literature, students’ chances for success were improved if they came to lab with the following: •
A “bird’s eye” view of the laboratory. This implies an appreciation of the theory underlying the experiment and a general view of the procedure to be used.
•
Prerequisite skill and knowledge required to carry out the practical. This means that required cognitive and procedural structures should be in place.
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A detailed understanding of the experimental steps to be carried out during the experiment.
Overall Plan The initial overall plan of the project was to evaluate the pre-laboratory process already in place since it appeared to meet the criteria found during the reconnaissance. The research began in the second semester of the course. As part of their pre-laboratory preparation students answered questions and wrote half-page synopses identifying the aim of the experiment, background information and/or concepts involved, and the experimental activities involved. However, students were not given instructions for writing a pre-laboratory synopsis. They were required to turn in their work before starting the lab, but the work was not graded. Each laboratory session began with a pre-laboratory discussion that was intended to clarify misunderstandings, remove any ambiguities in the instructions, and consolidate ideas. Action: Collecting Data The next phases of the study consisted of collecting the data as the laboratory program was implemented. Researchers served as the laboratory instructors in order to give themselves a firsthand view of the setting and of any impact the innovations made. Data included copies of pre-laboratory assignments; brief notes by the researchers resulting from direct observations of, and interactions with, the students in pre-laboratory sessions and in the laboratory; more extensive journal entries regarding the observations and interactions; and transcripts of interviews with the students about their experiences in the lab. Evaluation of Data During the first cycle of evaluation of the data it was found that the pre-laboratory reports appeared to vary significantly in the amount of effort expended by the students, who also varied in their apparent understanding of the procedural and conceptual aspects. From observation of the pre-lab discussions it was noted that only a few students appeared well prepared and understood the procedural and conceptual aspects of the experiment. These were the students who participated in the discussions and provided answers to the instructor’s questions. Most students remained silent. In the laboratory the well prepared students started almost immediately, appeared organized, completed the 664
activity on time, asked questions to verify their reasoning or their conceptual understanding, and made fewer procedural errors. On the other hand, students who were silent during the pre-laboratory discussions required time to read the lab manuals, looked at other groups to see what they were doing and attempted to mimic them, asked questions that dealt with getting the data quickly without spending time reasoning, and made a greater number of procedural errors.
Modifications Based on the results of the data analysis, the following modifications were made in the pre-laboratory procedures in order to increase the number of better prepared students: •
Pre-laboratory work was graded.
•
Students were encouraged to prepare templates (blank tables and similar formats for collecting data) for their reports as part of pre-laboratory preparation.
•
Bonus points were awarded for reports submitted early, and deadlines for handing in reports were rigorously enforced.
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More detailed guidance (in the form of an example) was provided on how to write synopses.
Action: Collecting Data During the second research cycle in the following fall semester data were collected as before as the modified prelaboratory was implemented. These data were analyzed to identify effects of the modifications put into place. The analysis suggests that providing guidance in writing the prelaboratory synopses and including points for them in the overall grade for the course had the desired effect. More students participated in pre-laboratory discussions and appeared better prepared to begin laboratory work. Insisting that reports be punctual and encouraging students to prepare tables in advance had a great impact on the seriousness with which they carried out their work. However, there still appeared to be a significant number of procedural problems as the students went about performing the experiments. It also appeared that knowledge and techniques were not being transferred from previous experiments. This suggested that the experiments should be kept simple but time should be allowed for frequent practice in identifying sources of error (a modification that could be the basis for another cycle of research). Although the project concluded at this point in the report, most probably the improvement of the lab preparation did not end. Action research tends to be a continual cyclical process, taking what is learned from each action analysis to make further modifications, in turn observing and reflecting on the results of the modifications, suggesting further modifications, and so on. Summary Action research is a method that has the potential to enable a teacher to investigate, evaluate, and improve his or her instructional methods. It goes beyond simple reflection on one’s teaching practice because the process involves
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Chemical Education Today
Reports from Other Journals analysis of data gathered from a variety of sources. Another benefit of action research is that it enables a data-based dialog among teachers regarding teaching and learning in their classrooms. For example, some who read this report may recognize laboratory techniques that they use with their own students. Others may find ideas for modifications of their approach, while still others may find new ideas. Literature Cited 1. Ball, D. L. In Handbook of Research Design in Mathematics and Science Education, Kelly, A. E; Lesh, R. A., Eds.; Lawrence Erlbaum: Mahwah, NJ, 2000; p 365. 2. Patton, M. Q. Qualitative Evaluation and Research Methods, 2nd ed.; Sage Publications: Newbury Park, CA, 1990. 3. Ebbutt, D. In Issues in Educational Research: Qualitative Methods, Burgess, R., Ed.; Falmer Press: London, 1985; Chapter 5.
4. Action Research Network, Ireland, http://ireland.iol.ie/~rayo/ (accessed Feb 2002) 5. Rollnick, M.; Zwane, S.; Staskun, M.; Lotz, S.; Green, G. Internat. J. Sci. Educ. 2001, 23, 1053–1071.
Reading List 1. Marshall, C.; Rossman, G. B. Designing Qualitative Research, 3rd ed.; Sage Publications: Thousand Oaks, CA, 1999. 2. Erickson, F. In Qualitative Methods in Research on Teaching, Wittrock, M, Ed.; Handbook of Research on Teaching, 3rd ed.; Macmillan: New York, 1986; pp 119–161.
Kenneth S. Lyle, a graduate student in the Chemistry Education Program, and William R. Robinson, his research supervisor, are in the Department of Chemistry, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907;
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