edned by
ELLEN and JAY BARDOLE
VinCenneS University Vincennes, Indiana 47591
The Fifty-Second and Fifty-Third Two Year College Conferences were held in Kansas City and New Orleans, respectively. The Friday morning session in Kansas City was jointly sponsored by the Midwest Region of ACS and the Committee on Chemistrv in the Two Year Colleee of the Division of Chemical ~ d u i a t i o nACS. The Great plains Association of'Chemistrs Teachers in Liberal Arts Colleres - ioined . us for the entire ~ i n s a City s meeting. In that session Linda Fowler from the Universitv of Cincinnati gave us an overview of Piaget's Theory. s h e clearly explained the four levels of cognitive development and discussed the problems we encounter if we teach in a manner appropriate for students a t the level of formal operational &en many or even most of the students operate in the concrete level of cognitive development. While the Piaeetian theom has been widelv discussed bv chemists during the past two or three yenrs, we know well that J. 1)udlev Herron of I'urdue Universitv has been a onmment of the applicability of his theories in lhemical edicahon for over ten years. After Dr. Fowler's fine primer, Dr. Herron presented "More Piaget for Chemists: Things That I Wish I Had Told You." As his title implies he was trving to clarifv misconceptions about the piagetian Theory. He pointed oui that a formal test to find the concrete thinker is not as important as finding out if the student is able to use scientific reasoning and to think in terms of considering all possibilities. He suggested that the best time to make these determinations is during informal contacts such as in the laboratory. Dr. Herron's second concern was the lack of understandine of the concrete operational level. He explained the distinction between the concrete operational and the formal operational level-the student who uses formal operational thinking bas "abilitv to eo bevond actual exnerience and reason in terms of what hasnot been experienced." Dr. Herron reminded us that Piaeet believed that when a Derson is usine formal ODerational thinking and encounters a new area, he reverts to concrete operational or pre-operational thought. This means that concrete referents are needed when abstract concepts are presented for the first time. even to advanced students who i r e capable of formal operational thinking. We were advised that the use oiexamples and illustrations is useful to both formal operational andconcrete operational students, while analogies are useful only to formal operational students since the u;e of analogies requires forma1,thought. Dr. Herron's closing thought was that we should not resign ourselves to teaching on the concrete level, but rather we should develop teaching techniques which help our students make the transition from concrete operational to formal operational. In New Orleans J. W. Carmichael and Mary Ann Ryan from Xavier reported on a Piaget-based Chemistry Program and Laboratory. This was particularly meaningful since students helped with the presentation. Clark Bricker from the University of Kansas discussed the placement problem in Nou-Piagetian terms clearly i d e n t i g four general groups of students. Those with ability, back~
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496 1 Journal of Chemical Education
ground, and motivation really don't need a teacher. A second group may have ability and background, but lack motivation and these are hard to teach. The group that we can do the most for are those with ability and high motivation, but limited hackmounds. Our use of exam~lesand demonstrations is most helpiul to thesestudenffi. ~ h u s with e very limited moti~,ation and ahilitv probably shouldn't he in a ch~mistrvcourse. In othe; &ssions it Kansas City we saw fantastic collections of models prepared by Leonard Grotz from the University of Wisconsin Center, Waukesha County, which he uses to help his students as they encounter abstract concepts. Doug Halstead from Evanston Township High School and those who participated in his workshop concentrated on stereochemical models. mace filline molecular models. and framework models: some of his work is reported in "A Stereochemical Performance Criteria Curriculum" which aooeared in Science .. Artri~rlrmMagaz~nr.Ortoher 1969. r l i f t m Meloan frwn Kansas State Universitv led a aorkshoi) on methodr for demonstrating many complex concepts that students often have a hard time understandine. These raneed from operation I the of an nmr to measurement i f optical &ation. A ~ of worksho~swere of the highest aualitv . . and participants found this a great way to spenda Saturday afternuon. ' In New Orleans our program was directed u~wardsharing special rechniques in ihereaching of chemisrry. ~rhrlrtsda Laughlin from Cuyahoga Communitv Colkcc and her son. .I. GuyLaughlin rep&teda method of cornput& assisted testing for Allied Health which she plans to use during the coming year. The computer is becoming a tool that we may all use to help us assemhle examinations and in some cases even help write them. This will help make repeatable testing effective without too great a demand on the teacher's time-after the question pool is developed. Many persons are working in this area and might be willing to exchange question banks. Both Donald DeLorenzo from Middle Georgia College and J. S. Viers from Virginia Polytechnic Institute have indicated an e exchanee. interest in this t v ~ of Joe Allen from Clemson a& Rod O'Conner from Texas A&M presented . papers . and a worksho~on their articular hrand-of personali7arion of general ;,hemisrry.'Can you imagine personalizinp: chemistrs for 3000 freshmen? The tech;liqu& suggested by these men are very exciting, and you in vour may find that you can use parts of their programs - teaching situation. Vera Zdravkovich from Prince George's Community College shared her experience in personalizing Organic Chemistry. Often we find that PSI efforts stop a t the end of the first year; however this is a fine program used in the second year course. Bill Cheek from Central Piedmont Community College shared the importance of on-going evaluation in these PSI courses and all of teaching. In relation to evaluation, Frank Walmsley from the University of Toledoexplained how the Toledo Examination can be used to find the level of preparation of incoming students. "Chemistry: Past, Present, and Future" was the keynote address in New Orleans given by Tom Lippincott. He traced
the development of chemical education, pointing out that, in the early years, puhlic lectures were widely used and well received. G. N. Lewis hrought prestige to specialization and with this specialization many chemists stopped talking to the puhlic. This resulted in a hreak of communications between the scientists and the consumer. Dr. Lippincott urged the return to love of teaching and the rekindling of the spark of mutual respect among teachers, researchers, and professional chemists in all areas of activity. In the future we need improved curriculum for our majors, which would require students to go beyond routine problem solving and to start coming-to grips the need for . with ideas. He also suggested .more generalized core courses, satisfying programs for nonmajors, and applications of teaching methods including.the use of psychology of learning. Dr. Hubert Alyea from Princeton inspired us a t both the Kansas City and New Orleans meetings. We had the rare opportunity togain an insight into his unique method of teaching chemistrv. From this bundle of enerev. -.. which is a t least a quantumjump ahwe most of us, we heard an eclectic blending of hasicchem~ralfacts not alwavs nuhlished in texthooks. but always telling it the way it is. FO; D;. Alyeamuch of the hi&ry he uses he has gained first hand. While we have not all had the opportunities gather history as he has, he pleads with us and with our students to not shy awav from u e o ~ l ewith ereat achievements. They are withmany i & k , whowant tu be treated ns fellow workers. They are usunlly willing to share with anyone who is truly interested. Alyea is a living example that this is true for he has lenrned from greats like Haher. I'lanck. Fermi. and Einstein hecaustt he wo~llrl-~~~~ listen. We he&d Dr. ~ l y e a a great emphasis on these scientists as people-their thoughts and feelings. The special thing about the great minds who laid the foundation for today's chemistry is that they too were real people, enjoying music and stimulating conversation. As he wove all of this into a meaningful way to teach chemistry as only a master storyteller could, we all stood in awe of this great teacher. The Armchair Experiment workshops gave many a chance to see Dr. Alyea in the role of the classroom teacher, and while ~~
we cannot all use his style of presentation, he teaches many things by example which may he used in any style of good teaching. First and most i m ~ o r t a ntto all educators, teachers and administrators alike,.our students should he the fbcal point of our nctivitv. Dr. Alvea helieves this. I watched him set hi.; little stage with a spotlight for all lecture demonstrations wherever he performed so everyone could see. At the banquet in New Orleans he went t o the hack of the dining room and sat--only for an instant, mind you-and discovered he couldn't see the little stage. He immediately stacked the three suitcases used to carry his show into an unstable pile and balanced the little stage on them. It was now a t eye ievel. As he did this, he muttered something about it being more im~ o r t a n that t the students could see than his he& comfortihle. We heard him say over and over, "You can tell your students this" or "Your students need to know this!' We heard him explain that after teaching a difficult topic, it is important to hreak the hard concentration hv telline a storv or some interelting historical moment. The idea we can all learn from Dr. Alvea is that enthusiasm for our teaching is contagious and is thebest way to infect our students with a desire to learn. A key point of his philosophy is reflected in the title of his talks, "The Importance of Irrelevancy." In his words, "The youth of today insists that he be taught only that which is 'relevant' to his life. But who knows what is relevant? One thing we can be sure of; what seems trivia today may become importantly relevant tomorrow? And then he tells story after story to illustrate this thesis. The second principal of this philosophy is also a title of a talk, "Lucky Accidents, Great Discoveries, and Prepared Mind." He uses demonstrations and stories to support the importance of aperson who is able to recognize the great discoveries of science. The Committee on Chemistry in the Two Year College counts it an honor and a pleasure to have benefited from Dr. Alyea's great lessons. We hope that many of you will plan to attend our next conference which will he a t Vincennes University, Vincennes, Ind. on October 7 and 8,1977.
Volume 54, Number 8, August 1977 1 497
