In the Classroom
Grade/Study-Performance Contracts, Enhanced Communication, Cooperative Learning, and Student Performance in Undergraduate Organic Chemistry Ralph C. Dougherty Department of Chemistry, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306-3006 This paper describes a teaching strategy designed to increase student retention while maintaining academic performance levels in undergraduate organic chemistry. The changes in the experimental course were grade/study-performance contracts, enhanced communication using electronic mail (1), and cooperative learning (1–8). The objective of this experiment was to alter the learning environment by creating a supportive learning community. Learning is most effective in an environment that is free from fear. A supportive community can provide this environment. The objective of the grade/study-performance contract was the development of learning skills. Students with university-average abilities can perform at a high level in undergraduate organic chemistry, if they follow a stratagem designed to develop long-term memory for large numbers of facts. The grade/study-performance contract (Fig. 1) makes this stratagem a formal part of the course and encourages all students to utilize it. Auditing of the work performance necessary to create learning is a legitimate approach to the assessment of learning. This approach has been widely used in “portfolio evaluation” assessment schemes (9). Rational and Experimental Design This experiment involved two sections of undergraduate organic chemistry, a two-semester sequence. The control section used a standard lecture format that provided an optional recitation. This course had four midterm examinations, and the lowest of the four grades was dropped. The 1991 ACS organic chemistry exam was offered as an extra credit option at the end of the second semester. The grade/study-performance contract (Fig. 1) was the central intervention in the experimental section. The contract set the tone for the course. Students could accept or reject the contract during the first week of class. Most of the students, 200 of 239, accepted the contract in term I and 119 of 147 accepted the contract in term II. The complete list of interventions in the experimental course appears in Fig. 2. Improvement of learning strategy was the leading idea in the grade/study-performance contract. The contract requirement that students appear for an audit of their study practices after every low exam grade provided the opportunity to investigate and correct causes of poor performance. One prominent apparent cause of poor performance was “photographic” records of the lectures. Such records of lectures can be created by rote process much as a court reporter accurately transcribes the proceedings of a trial. There may be little learning potential in this process because there is only weak association between the recorded symbols and the concepts. However, some students learned from photographic records of the lecture. These students did
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not appear for interviews under the contract. Students with low exam scores and photographic lecture notes were asked to make independent outlines and to fill in the outlines with notes taken both from the lecture and the text. The outline is the key to organized recall of material. If the student creates the outline, the chances that the material will be recalled may be increased. This question should be subjected to experimental verification. A second common apparent cause of poor performance was sole reliance on the transcription of nomenclature and organic reactions onto flash cards. The flash-card strategy works well for learning foreign languages because the conceptual structure for the primary language is always present, and the flash cards present associations with fragments of that structure. However, learning organic chemistry by use of a random stack of flash cards is the approximate equivalent of attempting to learn anatomy by placing all the bones in a pile in the middle of the floor. No one learns anatomy by random recall without a skeleton. This is because learning is associative. In organic chemistry the skeleton is the outline of the course. When students transfer from flash-card learning to an organized outline study plan, their learning increases, as judged by examination scores. Cooperative learning uses student-student interaction to enhance learning (2). A quantitative study of cooperative learning in general chemistry has shown a significant increase in both learning and retention compared to a standard lecture control (1). Quantitative evaluation of the effect of cooperative learning on retention of undergraduate chemical engineers has also shown positive results (6). Study groups of 4 or 5 students formed during the first week of each term. All assigned homework problems, quizzes, and pretests were group activities. All participating members received the same grade for group activities. In the first term the students were encouraged to form groups with maximum diversity—gender, race, age, and ethnicity. In the second term, the first-term groups were disbanded. No two members of the same group in the first term were in the same group in the second term. The even-numbered problems in text (10) were assigned to be turned in by the groups. These problems were graded only for completion, because a complete study guide was available. The text problems contributed 50 points to the course total of 700. Supplemental problems with a higher level of difficulty than the text were assigned weekly. The supplemental problems contributed an additional 50 points. Quizzes involved problems more challenging than those on exams. Interesting problems such as the effects of solvation on relative acidity were used to stimulate thinking with little or no grade consequence. Pretests were given as group projects in the last half of lecture, one week before
Journal of Chemical Education • Vol. 74 No. 6 June 1997
In the Classroom Organic Chemistry Performance Contract In return for a guarantee of a grade not less than C in Organic Chemistry, I, ____________________________________ SS# ___________________ agree to meet or exceed all of the following requirements: 1. 2. 3.
4.
5. 6. 7.
8.
Read all appropriate text material prior to the lectures; Attend all lectures and take comprehensive notes; Attend one recitation per week; Transcribe all lecture notes in ink into a Computation Notebook (National Brand 43-648, more than one computation notebook will be required for this course) with my name, address, phone number and e-mail address on page 1; The transcribed notes will contain all material covered in the lectures, supplemented with the text, in clear, easily readable, outline form, with headings and complete examples; Prepare a course outline that lists all of the reactions and mechanisms covered in a highly organized way (10 pages for entire course); Keep a blue laboratory notebook (National Brand 43-571) log of all time spent studying Organic Chemistry with my name, address, phone number and e-mail address on page 1, and the date, hours spent and topic for all work in Organic Chemistry; The log will show a minimum of nine (9) hours of work per week exclusive of lectures and recitations, with no more than two (2) hours counting for any day; Work all assigned problems and cooperate with my group to turn them in for credit; Work with my group on all quizzes and pretests; I will thoroughly review all notes for the course not less than once a week, and note the review in my log; If I make a score of less than 70% on any of the four exams for the course, I will be available by e-mail so that I will appear in the instructor’s office within 48 hours of being called prepared with my transcribed notes, outline, time log, and problems; Transcribed notes and time logs will be turned in at the last exam so they can be checked against the requirements above.
The object of this exercise is to earn a grade above a C based upon normal scores. (signature)__________________ date_____ (instructor) _______________
Figure 1. Grade/study-performance contract.
Cooperative study groups Weekly cooperative quizzes Weekly cooperative homework (high difficulty—strong premium on accuracy)
Electronic Mail Communication Organic Chemistry electronic bulletin board
Credit for correction to lecture and text Regular recitations Open office hours Grade/study-performance contract Transcribe notes Concise outline Time log Required office visits for poor performance
Grading policy—standard of performance Grade redemption—grade on final exam can serve as course grade
Figure 2. Interventions in the experimental course.
the exams. The pretests covered the range of material on the subsequent exams. The level of some problems was higher than that on exams because group effort produces performance superior to that available from individual effort. In classes of 200 students, effort is required to give the students a sense of belonging to the course. At the start of each term, each student in the experimental course received an electronic mail account associated with the course. A block of course-related electronic mail accounts is convenient for managing course information. An alias list was used to transmit the homework problems for the course.
Students’ grades went to their electronic mailboxes after every examination (11). There was no credit given for electronic mail communication except for the initial sign-on and posting of group identity, which generated a bonus of 0.7%. The enhanced communication also included open office hours. Students were encouraged to appear with questions at any time. Results The retention of students in undergraduate organic chemistry at this institution over the previous five years is recorded in Table 1. Retention is defined as the number of students completing the course with a grade of C{ or higher divided by the number of students registered after the fourth week of classes. Before the fourth week of classes, it is possible for students to drop the course without permission of the Dean. Overall retention is the retention in the first term times the retention in the second term. The retention rate in the experimental course was 0.82 for the first term and 0.93 for the second term. Overall retention was 0.76. This value is 3.8 times the average retention for the same sequence in the previous five years at the same institution. The total retention was seven standard deviations away from the previous mean. When the comparison is made with the control course for which data is reported below, the two-semester retention in the experimental course was 2.1 times that in the control. In the first term, nine students (4.5%), received a C based upon contract performance. In the second term, a higher proportion of contract C’s was given, 7.6% (nine students). The proportion of women in the course was 50% (73 of 147 in term II.) The proportion of women receiving contract-based C’s was 78% in term I and 67% in term II. The proportion of minority students in the contract C group was 28%. The proportion of minority students in the course as a whole was 16% (9% African American and 7% Asian and Hispanic). Four students who obtained C grades based upon the contract in the first term registered for the second term. One student received a contract C grade in both courses. Three students earned higher grades during the second term. Table 2 lists the number of student interviews conducted and the number of students dropped from the contract for failure to appear. In this experiment, failure to appear for an interview was the only cause for being dropped from the contract. The average interview lasted approximately 15 minutes. During the interviews, contract performance was audited by reviewing the transcribed notes, outline, time log, and required problems. The transcribed notes were central to the auditing. By scanning them, it was possible to find causes for failures on exams. It was also possible to assess attendance by looking at the transcribed lecture notes. Material unique to the lectures—not found in the text—was used to assess attendance. The two major indices of performance in the experimental and control sections were the grade distributions and the percentile scores on the ACS organic chemistry examination (11). This information is presented for term I in Figure 3, and for term II in Figure 4. The ACS examination percentile scores by letter grade in Figure 3 were obtained from the performance of students at the end of term II. The ACS 1991 Organic Chemistry Examination (11) was given at the end of the 1993 spring term for the control section of this course. In this section, students received 5 points of bonus credit for taking the exam in a 2-hour time slot at night. The ACS examination was given as the fourth exami-
Vol. 74 No. 6 June 1997 • Journal of Chemical Education
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In the Classroom nation in the second semester of the experimental course sequence. Students had 1.5 hours to complete the examination (2 hours are recommended.) Students were offered an A without taking the final for making a score above the 89th percentile on the ACS exam. Figure 5 presents the ACS examination percentile distributions for the control and experimental sections. The average percentile score for the control section on this examination was 46 with a standard deviation of ± 25 (n = 117). The corresponding data for the experimental section 53 ± 23 (n = 143). The 2025 students in the national population had a percentile mean of 50 and a standard deviation of ± 34. The system variance (12) for an examination like the 1991 ACS organic chemistry exam is approximately ± 15% when the mean is near the 50th percentile. Both the control and the experimental sections were within the range of the system variance. The difference between the performance of the two sections, experimental and control, is probably not meaningful. That the two groups performed at approximately the same level is significant. One group represented a twofold increase in retention for the two-semester sequence compared to the other. Although graphical material was not available by electronic mail, there was substantial use of electronic mail during both semesters. The numbers of answered electronic mail messages were 646 and 883 in terms I and II, respectively. Approximately one third of the electronic mail questions related to grades or “what will be on the exam”. The remainder requested information concerning problems in the text, supplemental problems, or individual lapses in understanding. The lack of a graphical interface did not hinder either asking or answering questions. Each student office visit was recorded, partly as a mechanism for learning the student’s name. In term I, 820 visits were logged; in term II, more than 600. These included all contract-required performance interviews. At the end of the experimental sequence, students evaluated both electronic mail and cooperative aspects of the course. They strongly appreciated these features. They also evaluated the other members of their group, and the average evaluation became part of the student’s final grade. Discussion To understand the effects of both the grade/study-performance contract and cooperative learning on stuTable 2. Requests for dent retention, it is useful Student interviews to consider causes of low Exam Requests Drops retention in undergraduate (%)a (%)b organic chemistry. Some Term I-1 23 4 causes in this subject are inadequate study skills, inTerm I-2 26 4 sufficient study, and obsesTerm I-3 38 12 sion with grades. The folTerm I-4 8 6 lowing paragraphs discuss these causes. Term II-1 33 3 Term II-2
27
3
Term II-3
37
7
Term II-4
11
1
a Percentage of contract students who were asked to come for an interview. b Percentage of contract students dropped from the contract for nonappearance for an interview.
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Study Skills One function of undergraduate organic chemistry in the curriculum is teaching undergraduates how to manage and retain large numbers of facts. Languages, history, and biology all require many of the
Table 1. Retention of Students in Undergraduate Organic Chemistrya Date
1st Term
2nd Term
Overall
Traditional Course 1987–88
0.44
0.58
0.26
SSb 1988
0.48
0.58
0.28
1988–89
0.25
0.54
0.14
SS 1989
0.50
0.46
0.23
1989–90
0.35
0.48
0.17
SS 1990
0.45
0.67
0.30
1990–91
0.50
0.57
0.28
SS 1991
0.50
0.72
0.36
1991–92
0.56; 0.70
0.51
0.33
SS 1992
0.44
0.69
0.30
1992–93 (control)
Mean
0.65; 0.48
0.46 ± 0.10
0.66
0.58 ± 0.09
0.36
0.27 ± 0.07
Experimental Course 1992–93
0.82
0.93
0.76
a Retention rate is the number of students who complete the course with a grade of C– or higher, divided by the number of students registered in the class after the fourth week. b
SS refers to the spring and summer offering of the sequence.
same skills. Learning is associative. In learning a second language, the associations with the word in the first language are complex and branched to associations of the first language word with other words. Learning strategies effective for languages are not really appropriate for organic chemistry. In organic chemistry there is no built-in secondary association to aid in recall. Students who rely solely on language-based learning strategies, particularly stacks of randomized flash cards, are often not successful. The incorporation of a conceptual outline for fact association in the contract provides a route for overcoming the lack of secondary associations. The method is a variation on the classical mnemonic, the method of loci. In the method of loci a map is used; facts are associated with map locations for purposes of recall. For learning organic chemistry, the most effective map is a detailed outline of the subject. With a careful outline, the student can develop the web of associations that is essential for effective recall of a large body of facts. In the method of loci, it is essential that one “memorize” the map and be able to recall it in detail at any time. This requirement is also present for organic chemistry. Students who cannot recite the list of reactions of alkenes that have been treated will generally have difficulty in recalling the details of those reactions. This creation of a mnemonic is the reason for the requirement of a clear outline in the contract. Creation of learning associations occurs in spoken, written, aural, and visual modes. Students were encouraged to say the names of chemicals and reactions as they transcribed their lecture notes into the contract notebook. They were encouraged to make notes from the text as they read it before the lectures, take complete notes during lectures, and transcribe both sets of notes into the contract notebook. The creation of three writing experiences for the facts of the course improves the probability of retention and successful recall. Cooperative study groups provide an opportunity to discuss the subject. Discussion reinforces verbal and aural
Journal of Chemical Education • Vol. 74 No. 6 June 1997
In the Classroom learning.
Insufficient Study An instructor’s auditing of the creation of a complete set of transcribed lecture notes, an outline, and a complete set of solved problems will not guarantee that a student will spend sufficient time in concentrated study. It will, however, insure some minimum of study exposure to the material.
Figure 3. Grade distributions and ACS organic chemistry examination percentile scores for term I.
Figure 4. Grade distributions and ACS organic chemistry examination percentile scores for term II.
Obsession with Grades Obsession with grades is attachment to tokens in place of substance. Grade obsession often results in exam anxiety and decreased performance. It also decreases retention. Students manipulate the withdrawal system to avoid an anticipated low grade. The provision of a grade/study-performance contract deemphasizes grades. Regular reporting of all components of a student’s grade minimizes the anxiety associated with uncertainty about grade status. Exam anxiety is a major cause of failure in undergraduate organic chemistry. Although provision of a safety net does not eliminate exam anxiety, it does diminish its impact. The post-exam interview is a mechanism for converting the discouraging experience of an exam failure into a positive experience for learning. During the first term of the experimental course, a student appeared who had twice taken the course unsuccessfully. After a failing performance on the second exam, the student brought in a stack of approximately two thousand flash cards prepared during two previous attempts at the course. When the necessity of establishing an associative structure for learning was explained, the student changed to a study strategy of an organized outline. This student completed both terms with an A grade. The interventions in Figure 2 did change the atmosphere of community in the experimental course in a positive way. They also changed the outcome of the course for many students. The retention rate in the experimental course exceeded the previous average retentions (Table 1) by 3.5 (term I), 4.0 (term II), and 6.9 (sequence total) standard deviations. The percentile averages for the experimental course and its control were 53 and 46, respectively. The difference between the two percentile means was 3.8 standard deviations. The differences in retention and percentile scores are statistically significant (p
