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What Works? Practical Uses of Chemical Education Research
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John W. Moore
University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706-1396 |
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This issue is out of print. |
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It is worthwhile occasionally to think about the value of software and other technology-based learning materials. For example, are the carefully crafted and reviewed software, videos, and animations included in issues of JCE: Software really worth the time and effort authors have expended to create them, reviewers have taken to evaluate and improve them, and editors have contributed getting them into shape for publication? We hope the answer is yes, and even partial confirmation of that answer is extremely pleasant when it occurs. One such partial confirmation appeared recently in a paper by Williamson and Abraham (1). They studied the effect of computer-generated animations on students' ability to handle and understand atomic-scale models of chemical behavior in the parlance of chemical education, the particulate nature of matter. There is considerable evidence that the particulate nature of matter is fundamental to students' ability to assimilate and understand chemistry (2-9). Many people doing research in chemical education are documenting this, devising ways to help students learn to handle atomic-scale models, or both. Williamson and Abraham found that viewing computer-generated animations of molecules and atoms helped students considerably. The students who viewed the animations were better able to answer conceptual questions that required understanding of the particulate nature of matter than were students who did not. This was true whether the students viewed the animations in a lecture setting only or individually in a computer room as well as in lecture. Interestingly, there was no significant difference between students who saw the animations only in lecture and those who viewed them both in lecture and individually. There was strong evidence that the motion in the animated sequences (analogous to the motion of submicroscopic particles in nature) contributed to students' successful mastery. The paper by Williamson and Abraham provides results of a well controlled experiment, and those results have immediate implications for how we teach. I commend it to readers of this issue, because it is an example of chemical education research with obvious practical uses. I also am pleased that it confirms the efficacy of some of the techniques embodied in the software included in this issue. All of the programs are designed to complement lecture or classroom presentations, and one of them, Window on the Solid State, has been designed in two different versions: one for individual study and one for classroom presentation. Three of the programs complement videodiscs available from JCE: Software, allowing teachers much easier access to the content of the discs. Some of that content, particularly on ChemDemos and Demonstrations in Organic Chemistry, consists of animations of the sort studied by Williamson and Abraham. Window on the Solid State is explicitly designed to provide interactive and animated sequences that help students to learn how atoms are arranged in the structures of solid metals. It succeeds quite well, particularly with animations that show layers of atoms in close-packed lattices, and might well be the subject of an extension of Williamson and Abraham's study. The experimental result that showing animations in lecture was just as efficacious as showing them in both lecture and computer room argues for considerable use of the version of Window on the Solid State that is designed for lecture presentation. In this version there is a minimum of explanatory text, and screens have been designed with larger text to accommodate the greater viewing distance of most students in a lecture hall as opposed to a computer room. The same atomic-level models and animations are used, however, and it is assumed that the lecturer will present more or less the same information that the text does in the individual-study version. Often no distinction is made between software designed for individual study and that designed for classroom presentation, and the result often serves neither audience well. Those who want to see a good example of each kind of design should install both versions of Window on the Solid State and compare them. The promise of computers and technology to enhance learning by chemistry students is greatly enhanced when educational experiments such as those of Williamson and Abraham point out clearly successful applications of software to learning. Knowing that well designed animations can help students over an important conceptual hurdle provides a real incentive to authors to produce more such work and to teachers to use what the author/programmers produce. At JCE: Software we are working to find as much excellent material of this type as we can, and to make it readily available to teachers at all levels at reasonable costs. Our ultimate aim is to improve students' understanding of chemistry. I encourage you to join us in this endeavor, as authors, users, or both, and to keep us informed of your successes and setbacks. Only by continued experimentation can the wonderful new medium of technology be used to its capacity.
Literature Cited
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Last Updated: April 26, 2001 Created: December 3, 1996 |
Created by: J. L. Holmes Comments to: jceonline@chem.wisc.edu |
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| © 1997 Division of Chemical Education, Inc., American Chemical Society. All rights reserved. | |