International Journal of Scientific Reports Hadush G. Int J Sci Rep. 2017 Jul;3(7):203-213 http://www.sci-rep.com
pISSN 2454-2156 | eISSN 2454-2164 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18203/issn.2454-2156.IntJSciRep20173092
Original Research Article
Evaluation and intervention of students’ laboratory performance in chemistry graduating classes; Wachemo University, Ethiopia Hadush Gebrehiwot* Department of Chemistry, Wachemo University, Hossana, Ethiopia Received: 28 May 2017 Revised: 25 June 2017 Accepted: 29 June 2017 *Correspondence: Mr. Hadush Gebrehiwot E-mail:
[email protected] Copyright: © the author(s), publisher and licensee Medip Academy. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
ABSTRACT Background: The laboratory courses offer students the opportunity to gain manipulative skills, observational skills, and the ability to plan experiments and to interpret experimental data. The laboratory can be an excellent environment for active learning. It has long been considered useful to develop conceptual understanding, but some recent courses have been developed that rely heavily on laboratory experience, in contrast to conventional teaching methods, for the development of conceptual understanding of sciences. The primary purpose of this study was to assess laboratory perceptive of the graduating class students‟ of the department of chemistry and to engage them as active learners. Methods: A total sample containing 20 students consisting of 14 males and 6 females were selected for the study. Four experiments were given to randomly selected participants in the respective strata and students were evaluated on the basis of different parameters. Results: The findings of this research showed that almost all the sample students fail to correlate their theoretical accumulation with the practical performance. Conclusions: So, severe works should be made on the various issues concerning the laboratory to be a unique learning environment to create well skilled students. Keywords: Active learning, Laboratory intervention, Pre-laboratory, Post-laboratory
INTRODUCTION For more than 100 years, laboratories have been employed for teaching and learning in the natural science disciplines.1 Laboratory experiences have been found to promote problem-solving abilities, intellectual development, scientific thinking, and practical skills.2-5 Laboratory work should achieve: „„enhancing mastery of subject matter, developing scientific reasoning, understanding the complexity and ambiguity of empirical work, developing practical skills, understanding the nature of science, cultivating interest in science and interest in learning science, and developing teamwork abilities.‟‟ Unlikely, the traditional chemistry laboratories
follow expository instruction and have been often described as cookbook-type laboratories.6 Expository environments promote rote procedures which restrict students from forming an authentic understanding of the connections between the data they collect and the theories the data describe.7 In addition to lectures, the laboratory activities have an important and central role in the science curriculum. The courses in laboratory put forward students the occasion to gain manipulative skills, observational skills, and the ability to plan experiments and to interpret experimental data. The significant role of laboratory work is to help students to make links between two domains of
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knowledge: the domain of objects and observables and the domain of ideas. Therefore, learners can perform the experiments effectively at two levels: at the “doing” level and at the “learning” level.1 Consequently, they need to have a variety of skills at both levels to experiment successfully. The “doing” level focuses on manipulative skills and observational skills whereas the “learning” level focuses on the ability to interpret experimental data and to plan experiments.8 In addition, practical work promotes further aims, for example interest development, personality development, and enhancement of social competence.9 Laboratory as an excellent environment for active learning The laboratory should help the students develop a broad array of basic skills and tools of experimental sciences and data analysis. While it is imperative that students have a broad experience with techniques using laboratory equipment, it is impossible to prescribe precisely which equipment should be used in all science laboratories. At the same time, it is advisable to allow students to make the use of many different types of laboratory apparatus to make observations. The laboratory should help students master basic science concepts. A growing body of research in science education indicates that a majority of students have difficulty in learning basic physical concepts in a course built around conventional teaching methods, textbook problems, and verification of experiments. These studies indicate that to improve learning, students must actively confront difficult concepts.10
the desire of the modern century to participate in new innovations that can transform human lives. So, this research has contributed to examine the practical accumulations and to fill in the existing gap in theoretical and practical achievements of third year students in the Department of chemistry, Wachemo University, Ethiopia. Objectives The general objective of this study was to evaluate laboratory understanding for the graduating class students‟ of the department of Chemistry, Wachemo University, Ethiopia and to engage them as active learners. In order to achieve this educational goal, the experimental phases should be designed to promote and require students‟ preliminary considerations and decisions concerning the laboratory procedure before they perform it. In this context the students learnt to recall theory and techniques, promote scientific methods of thought, make accurate observations, and interpret experimental results. The research therefore had the following specific objectives.
To examine the practical achievement of some selected students through conducting experiments; To let know reasons for students weak result during practical sessions; To reason out the possible solutions to minimize those barriers.
Having these objectives the research made an effort to answer the following research questions;
Laboratory interventions Intervention is a situation in which someone becomes involved in a particular issue or problems.11 The principal focus of laboratory intervention should not be limited to learning specific scientific methods or particular laboratory techniques; instead, student in the laboratory should use the methods and procedures of science to investigate phenomena, solve problems, pursue inquiry and interests.12,13 Interest in using inquiry-based teaching strategies has increased in recent years as science teachers have become more critical about the efficacy of cookbook-type laboratory activities and indeed the purpose, practices, and learning outcomes of laboratory in general.14 It is gradually being recognized that whereas cookbook laboratory can teach some laboratory techniques and skills or serve as visual aids for concept already studied, they are largely ineffective as a tool for teaching science concept.15,16 Evaluation of students' practical achievement during their university reside is one of the most imperative method to measure their skill and potential for what they build up. Students graduated with applied sciences are becoming
Question 1: Do students perform experiments more successfully and achieve higher learning outcomes by using a cognitive activating laboratory instruction? Question 2: Are manipulative skills in a cognitive activating laboratory instruction developed as good as in a traditional laboratory instruction? Question 3: Do students accumulate a good practical potential at the eve of their graduation? Question 4: Could students overcome the current demand of their nation through their practical activities during their exposure to different governmental and nongovernmental institutions? METHODS Population The population of this study comprised selected male and female students of Chemistry department of the faculty of natural and computational sciences in Wachemo University, Ethiopia.
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Even if many third year students were enrolled in the department of Chemistry at Wachemo University in 2015/16 academic year, sampling was important to observe the activity of each student in laboratory and to have adequate laboratory equipments during the experimental sessions. Study design and sampling The pilot study was conducted during the winter semester II, 2016 in the different laboratories of the Department of chemistry of Wachamo University. Initially, the existing laboratory instruction was revised and improved according to educational objectives and research results. A descriptive survey design was used for the study. The sampling methods used in the study were simple random sampling methods. Stratified sampling was assisted to represent all the students of 3rd year Chemistry students based on their CGPAs and interest in the class. The total sample contained 20 students holding of 14 males and 6 females. Four experiments were given to randomly selected participants in the respective strata.
Phase I (pre-laboratory evaluation methods) Conceptual Test: A test containing 10 questions from the different experiments they worked so far were given before the laboratory works. Students were evaluated on the basis of their score as excellent (8-10), very good (7-8), good (57) and weak (
