Assessment Session

In the closing session, the participant teams identified key insights gained at the meeting, new techniques for teaching that they intended to try, positive aspects of the conference, improvements that could be made in the structure, and topics for a future meeting.

Key Insights

1. The teaching of chemistry must start, not with the teacher's clear understanding of chemistry, but with the misconceptions that students have. We need to make a greater effort to find out what these misconceptions are by using a diversity of representations (macroscopic, microscopic, graphical, mathematical, pictorial, and symbolic) in teaching chemistry and assess the students' understanding of them.
2. If we are to teach chemistry successfully, we need to help students develop the skills that they need in order to learn and apply chemistry. We need to focus on the steps of learning and coach the students in developing their skills to improve their performance in their learning process.
3. Process must be included explicitly in our courses. The process of learning chemistry is more critical than any specific knowledge. Skills in the processes of critical thinking and problem solving are especially important.
4. Skills in many areas are essential for learning chemistry and for success in college and careers. These skills lie in the affective domain as well as in the cognitive domain. If one is able to deal emotionally with difficulties and the possibility of failure, then greater challenges can be faced and learning enhanced. It is important to develop language skills in our students and ourselves.
5. Cooperative learning is a powerful tool for increasing the empowerment of individuals at all levels of development to promote growth. Student-centered workshops are more effective than instructor-led recitations. Teams working together are more effective than individuals. Assigning specific responsibilities (roles) to team members, when properly structured, enhances the performance of the team and develops process skills. Teams are extremely powerful when roles are properly defined and owned. Different models of cooperative learning work. Different groups have different personalities and dynamics.
6. Peer leaders can be effective teachers in workshops. Peer-led workshops provide students with structured study time and guide students in the process of studying.
7. Working in a team and reaching a consensus is a time-consuming process that requires skill but leads to better understanding and a stronger outcome.
8. There is a big difference between assessment and evaluation. Assessment is a key instructional tool. It is an essential means of guiding learning and a critical component of learning and performing. We need to assess specific learning and performance skills to help improve those skills.
9. Much can be accomplished in a short fixed time that is valuable even without bringing each activity to closure. Loose threads left hanging can promote subsequent thought and are not necessarily undesirable.

New Techniques for Teaching

1. Use lecture time in different effective and interesting ways to engage students and assess conceptual understanding, e.g. intersperse presentation with group activities, concept tests, one minute papers, visualization, group quizzes, and small-group discussions.
2. Emphasize molecular-level representations and their meaning.
3. Use guided-reading or guided-inquiry assignments or quizzes to help students develop reading and note taking skills. Use methodologies to aid students in becoming better learners and problem solvers.
4. Monitor and analyze student discussions of what they are learning and using to answer questions and solve problems.
5. Use more group activities in both lecture and recitation sessions and formalize the group structure by defining roles and goals. Use peer leaders and institute a training program for them. Design appropriate group activities.
6. Use self-assessment both of myself and for the students. More assessment of student performance to increase skills in and amount of learning, which includes reading, writing, oral communication, and thinking. Devise assessment tools to guide and stimulate reading and promote preparation. Assess progress on both subject mastery and skill development. Institute a course assessment system for continues use throughout the course.
7. Use fewer algorithmic problems and give problems that are less structured.
8. Incorporate physics and math with the chemistry content.
9. Have students present laboratory results as a poster.
10. Use computer generated and graded personalized homework
11. Stop solving problems in class, have groups do problems and report their solutions to the class.

Positive Features of the Meeting

1. Provided a non-threatening environment for learning and growth.
2. Intellectual growth was expected and encouraged by everyone
3. The perspectives of the student participants were extremely valuable.
4. Active participation in teams was a major part of the meeting.
5. Afternoons were flexible to provide spontaneous participant-led workshops for just-in-time discussions as interests developed.
6. The participants - diversity of colleges, high quality of presentations, willingness to work together and share ideas and problems, i.e. bond, which was promoted by the format.
7. Implementation issues were addressed and collaborations were developed with those who have set up programs.
8. Excellent organization, food, and banquet.
9. Sessions were related, they built-on and reinforced each other.
10. The format promoted and allowed us to practice working in teams.
11. Demonstrated the power of teams for learning and assessment.
12. Provided material and ideas that can be implemented with a mix of the supporting philosophy and methodology and concrete examples of what is being done.
13. One of the most productive meetings I've attended. The quality of the presentations was excellent as was the organization.

Areas for Improvement

1. The one-hour time slots were too short. The 90 minute time slots worked much better, consider lengthening these to 120 minutes. Do not schedule any sessions in the afternoons.
2. Include assessment of each session to help the presenters grow in their performance.
3. Provide time for reports from the spontaneous participant-led workshops and from others working on projects. Include these reports in the conference minutes or journal.
4. Need structured time for reflection.
5. Use a digital camera to add faces to the participant list. Put the city/state on the name tag.
6. Include more students and high-school and elementary-school teachers. Their perspectives are important.
7. Have a poster session.
8. Have a block of time, afternoon and evening, set aside for recreation, with a guided tour or organized trip to NYC or some place on Long Island.
9. Have more concrete take-home items that can be used in the classroom.
10. Have a broader context - not just General Chemistry and Process Education, also include upper division courses and other learning methods and models.
11. Recruit more novices. This meeting had great power and energized the participants.

Topics for the Future:

1. Assessment techniques (pre and post) to reveal students conceptual knowledge, attitudes, and process skills.
2. Progress reports on what has been accomplished and what has changed since the previous meeting, including a self assessment of strengths, areas for improvement and insights gained.
3. The movement from content to outcome and performance based assessment and evaluation.
4. Set up research teams to address key issues and processes that the participants identified as being important to develop.
5. Building from General Chemistry to the Upper Division. Active learning and innovations across the chemistry curriculum.
6. Probing and understanding what students are thinking.
7. The Instructional Chemistry Laboratory.
8. Using technology with process education.
9. Chemistry for non-science majors.
10. Developing skills, especially in critical thinking and problem solving and also in the affective domain.
11. Discuss and focus on what we should do, not what we can do and have done. Identify what we want the outcome to be, how we structure our courses for it, and how we determine whether we got there.

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