Figure 1 Frequency of the experiment repetition
Chemical Education Journal (CEJ), Vol. 4, No. 1 /Registration
No. 4-11/Received February 20, 2000
URL = http://www.juen.ac.jp/scien/cssj/cejrnlE.html
E-mail: tadayosi@fukui-nct.ac.jp
Abstract: Various education improvements were tried to
finish education effect of student training in chemical experiment.
We developed teaching materials which students could learn on
a computer to practice beforehand learning for the experiment.
A student studied the subject that received practical training
in beforehand learning and experiment independently. He/she practiced
oral announcement on the theme in the seminar presentation.
The student experiment that we are in charge of is in the field
of physical chemistry. Forty persons (class) are divided into
an experiment group by twos. One group chooses 4 themes among
each experimental subject and receives practical training. About
the subject that isn't learned by lecture, a student received
practical training in learning beforehand of CAL (computer-aided
learning). The student's independent learning manner was observed
via experiment practices, which he/she chose from 20 themes of
physical chemistry. Compared with a regular class, autonomy and
aggressiveness for chemical experimental operation were observed.
As a result of education practice for 3 years, the student's autonomy
by imposing a presentation has been improving. The students individually
repeated the experiment, until the experiment description could
be understood. By marking evaluation with an oral presentation,
his/her degree of understanding by beforehand received almost
an "A" rating.
It is said that there are "Transmission" and "Enlightenment"
methods in the education method roughly dividing into two [1]. The
former is a system for inculcating learning as a completion system,
where the lecture by writing on blackboard is memorized by writing
down. On the other hand, the latter is a system for guiding the
student in order to leave the system of learning from the viewpoint
of the primer, thoroughly carries out discussion through experiment
and practical training and raises the ability of the person involved.
The education technique of the enlightenment method is most suitable
for growing the character of a student, and for realizing creative
education.
The improvement of the education technique which raises the teaching
effectiveness of student practical training in chemical experiment
is a practice of the enlightenment method, and has been previously
tried [2,
3].
At the 22nd annual meeting of the Japan Society of Science Education (JSSE), research discussion was carried out on self-learning exploration of the student individual in the chemical experiment, and development and the use of network teaching materials, in problem research "Trial to practice education in chemical education" [4, 5, 6, 7, 8]. In our research, teaching materials for student experiment, which could be studied on the computer to practice study beforehand, were developed. The teaching materials on the network of Internet were opened to the public. In addition, research, which examined the improvement in the teaching effectiveness of experimentaltraining by beforehand learning, was carried out and the results have been reported [4, 8, 9, 10]. In this paper, the problem of beforehand learning and experimental training was deeply studied with regard to the independent volition of the student. Oral presentation on the theme was practiced by the student, and independent volition teaching effectiveness in the presentation work was examined.
The laboratory work we are chargeed with is in practical physical chemistry at the 4- grade level (Chemistry & Biology Engineering Department) of our college, and a typical experimental subject (20 themes) is shown in Table 1. By choosing 4 themes for each experiment subject, practical training was given to a class of 40 persons', in groups of two . In any situation (the wedged education of technical college) the experiments are executed partially with precedence to the lecture in physical chemistry as a base. For this reason, practical training concerns problems that students do not see in the lecture.
In addition, the beforehand learning is practiced first of
all. The beforehand learning was consistently self-instruction,
and the independent learning attitude on the experimental theme
was observed. Then, it was more autonomous than the normal class
for the attitude of the student, and the positiveness was observed.
Table 1 Theme list of physical
chemistry experiments
Furthermore, the oral presentation was made on a problem of experiment practical training and included the experimental result report for further self-learning. On the problem of experiment practical training, one purpose of the oral presentation is to independently and briefly speak in front of all the members using OHP (over head projector), a summary of the report matter. The grading is the responsibility of 2 instructors, the presentation being limited to 10 minutes and the question period to 5 minutes. The oral presentation is carried out according to the open program in our college. By setting the standard charge, evaluations of the presentation are carried out using the 5-stage score (A B C D E) as shown at Table 2.
Table 2 Evaluation items list
for the oral presentation for physical chemistry experiment
The presentation is carried out on the problem in which all individually differ, because the problem of the presentation imposes the theme, that allocated on circumstances of laboratory experiment, first on the student. However, there is no degree of difficulty in the presentation according to the problem. The importance of the presentation was being put on how the relative error to the result is reduced (the goal of the laboratory experiment)(?) , or how the generation of the error is analyzed.
The evaluation ( grading item) of the presentation was based on how the intelligibility on the practiced experiment item was acquired through beforehand learning. Practical training content was chosen to show whether the student considered and analyzed the data of the measured result. Regarding the presentation, this is first time for the student since technical college entrance to have experience with oral presentation. Except for forcing the use of OHP (about 10 sheets), it should all be left to the autonomy of the student. Understanding and autonomy for the study report were the grading items.
During education practice over the past 3 years ('96--'98) , the autonomy of student practical training was improved by imposing the presentation. The student independently advanced beforehand learning in spite of the given experiment subject. The student' aspect, which independently repeated the experiment, was observed, until theoretical data based on the experimental problem were obtained approximatively at the experiment practice. The student individually practiced experiment , until he/she could almost give concordant results. In the grading evaluation of the presentation, the student acquired almost mark "A" on the intelligibility for experiment practical training. Positive learning attitude by personal computer-aided learning was mainly observed without using and copying the notes of senior students in the preceding fiscal year. The fundamental experiment attitude seems to have become fixed for the preparation and correspondence of the necessary standard solution in experiment practical training .
The SP chart was made from the result score of the individual student in the physical chemistry experiment. The SP chart consists of a student curve (S) and a problem item curve (P). The evaluation items were as follows; attendance point (Attendance), presentation point (Presentation) in the presentation, whole rating point (Total), presentation report point (P-Report) and other report point (O-Report) except for the presentation. The SP chart was made by letting score "A" (rating point) in each item be 1, and making "B" 0. What were made using the practiced data in 3 years ('96--'98) are Table 3, Table 4, and Table 5. Mark A is an excellent score, and mark B is a good one .
The rankings of the evaluation (program) items were almost the same in the SP charts for these 3 years. However, the presentation report point (P-Report) has been reversed with the whole rating point (Total) in 1996. In the P-Report, the result was improved over the next years ('97, '98) compared to '96. The students who skipped the beforehand training did not break laboratory equipments(?) , and they all made the presentation , and then score "A" was marked. However , the presentation point of 2 students was score "B" in 1998.
The student curve (S) and problem item curve (P) also show the overlap of these three SP charts. It becomes gentle in comparison with the gradient of those curves from 1996 to 1998. The improvement of the "A" acquisition rate in the other report (O-Report) except for the presentation theme occurred every fiscal year. That is, the autonomy seemed to reflect it except for the presentation theme, when 4 themes of the experiments were chosen and attended. On the presentation, the strain and the positiveness were sensed by all students, and the results were excellent. However , as an operation third, there was one group that obtained mark "B" and guidance had to be improved for better presentation preparation attitude. It was based on the individual capacity of the students in 1998, who were not motivated for experimental training.
This physical chemistry experiment was taken in the prophase at 4-grade. Then, the questionnairing was carried out for all students at 5-grade, who took the experiment practical training. It is educationally significant that this questionnaire was administered to students (5-graders) after practice. It is most suitable to investigate the hysteresis of the learning for students who passed one year, after it was taken.
Table 6 The questionnaire items list for self-learning and self-study investigation in the physical chemistry experiment after practical training
For questionnaire questions for the above, the answers for
finished trainees (5-graders) are arranged as follows. It was
possible for the student to have satisfaction and self-confidence
for the problem of the presentation on the student experiment.
By this result (2), the answer of "It was well." was
almost given by all students. The educational significance of
the presentation was estimated by the answers to these questions.
In the interview question (3, 4) for 5-grade students, 10% or
less replied that they were asked about the laboratory experiment.(?)
The effectiveness of the interview for this question could not
be recognized for university entrance and employment, etc.
For the above question (5), there were many 3--4 times of the
frequency on whether a student repeated the experiment time as
shown in Figure 1. The half of students
repeated the experiment, until the accurate experimental data
could be obtained.
Figure 1 Frequency of the experiment repetition
In the multiple answer : what kind of beforehand learning was made (6), before the experiment was carried out, the personal computer-aided learning (CAL) was 81%, and the textbook learning was 43%. No student borrowed the senior note and copied it. The CAL learning for the beforehand learning was almost always (?) utilized, and significance of the teaching materials in the CAL system was confirmed. With respect ot the amount of time taken by the students, for the preparation of the briefing session (presentation) (7), the results are shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2 Total hours of preparation time needed for presentation
This figure shows that about 1/4 of the students finished the preparation within a few hours, and that the other persons used enough time for preparation of the presentation .
For question (8) whether student thinks that the presentation was finished successfully, i.e. he/she was satisfied with the presentation work, the number of satisfied students was 74% on average, when good preentation performance was possible . In question (9) whether the student independently completed the experiment (the presentation experiment), it averaged 78%. For the evaluation of the presentation, the fiscal year change was observed for three evaluation items of educational significance, understanding and independenal as shown in Figure 3.
Figure 3 Relationship among three evaluation items: educational, understanding and independental
Figure 4 Degree of independence in other reports
On the theme, except for the presentation, the result for question (10) that the experiment was completed is shown in Figure 4. For the autonomy with which the student carried out the experiment, it was found that it greatly depended on the oral presentation. In 1998, however, half of the students were independently able to practice the experiment on the theme except for the presentation.
In the final question (11) the details of the experiment theme was described, which one memorized (5-grade), 70% of the students gave the experiment description based on their memory. About 3/4 of the students memorized the experimental content taken during the experimental practice at the 4-grade level.
Figure 5 The annual change in total and report marks
The use of the beforehand learning for this physical chemistry experiment dates from 1992. Figure 5 shows the total mark and report mark in the experimental practices from 1992 to 1998. The acquisition rate for the score "A" has stagnated, as expected, after 3 years . Because the CAL system for the beforehand learning was the production stage, the satisfied education support was not possible. The CAL system was also reflected in the whole result, because it had been almost completed since 1995. Especially, the report mark on four subjects training was 80% in 1998 (total mark). On the chosen and practiced experiment theme, the student score result was excellent.
The student should be made to take all 20 experiment themes, but 4 themes were chosen as shown at Table 1, due to the circumstances of our college curriculum. Through the admission of this presentation, it is possible that the student individually deepens his/her learning on the experiment compared to the other group.
In Europe and America, the education systems impose presentation in the basic curriculum, because these countries emphasize individualism. Therefore, there are many Nobel Prize winners there as a result of creative education. Since writing-on-the-blackboard education (transmission system) has been carried out until now, in Japan, it is said that few persons there have received the Nobel Prize. For future education improvement, the execution of Japanese-style presentation education becomes important. Creative education that cultivates thinking ability should be carried out via the effective presentation.
The authors are grateful to Prof. Daisaku Miyatani of Toyama National College of Technology for his valuable advice.
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