Learning Problems and Teaching Strategies

Prepared by Leonard C. Grotz, University of Wisconsin Center-Waukesha County

This symposium examined the status of teaching strategies and ancillary activities that are based upon a perception of the prohlems that interfere with or prevent the learning of chemistry by students of chemistry. Although a large portion of the symposium was devoted to a consideration of applica- tions of the works of Piaget, it was not limited to Piagetian considerations since the problems treated in this manner are not the only prohlems encountered by students of chemis- try.

Richard W. Johnson (1) addressed himself to strategies designed to overcome psychological prohlems in learning chemistry; that is, motivational prohlems, personality con- flicts, poor self-image, and poor study techniques. These prohlems were discussed in terms of a general problem-solving model with the use of sample solutions from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and elsewhere. Strategies that can he employed by individual teachers include: the use of a variety of learning options; frequent evaluations of the learning progress of the students under non-threatening conditions; the use of a continuing program of teacher evaluation by the students; self-monitoring of study activities by the students; the design of some success experiences for all students into the learning activities; and by relating chemistry to the "real world" of the students. Strategies that can he employed by counseling centers include: teaching students how to take notes, prepare for examinations, study efficiently, write themes, and develop prohlem solving techniques; help stu- dents to clarify their values and establish life goals; and teach relaxation procedures to the students to reduce test and study anxieties.

Carol Tomlinson-Keasey (2) discussed the development of reasoning abilities as given by the stage development theory of Inhelder and Piaget. The distinction between the concrete operational stage and the formal operational stage of rea- soning ahilities was illustrated by the use of an audience participation game of 20 questions. Classifications and transformations that were involved in the game were used to demonstrate the limitations of concrete operational students in dealing with the formal operational logic of chemistry. It is generally agreed that as many as 50% of college freshmen have not progressed to the formal operational stage; they are not able to consider all the possibilities, to abstract from specific experiences, or to generalize from one experience to another. Success in the study of chemistry, if a t all possihlq, can then only he the result of rote memorization. This suggests that one of the primary objectives of general chemistry pro- fessors should he the development of reasoning skills. This is done by getting the student more actively involved in the learning process, greater oral communication with the stu- dents to ascertain their current reasoning abilities, and then presenting information that is slightly discrepant from the ways the students currently view concepts in order to activate problem solving ahilities in the students. Once the reasoning skills are developed within the context of one discipline, they are readily transferred to the study of other disciplines.

Robert G. Fuller described (3) the ADAPT program at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. The ADAPT program, Ac- cent on Developing Abstract Processes of Thought, is a mul- tidisciplinary, Piagetiau hased program for college freshmen. All of the courses are taught according to the active learning Piagetian model, called the learning cycle, developed by Robert Karplus of the University of California-Berkeley. A

learning cycle consists of three phases. The first phase, called the l?uploration phase, features open ended, st;dent explo- ration uf a roncrete, manipulnrive (xperience, and is intended to provide an amount of disequilibratinn. The srrond phase. the Cunrept introduction phase, features group discussion with theinstructor helping thestudentstofocustheir think- ing, tv hegin self-regulation, and to define concepts that can he gt:nrrali7ed from the exploration activities. In the iinal phase, tht:Conrept Application phase, the studenrs apply the newly dt.fined concepts to additional svstemj. In a good learning cycle, the student is actively led through the &en- tion of the concept in his own mind, thereby imparting meaningful and retentive learning of the concept. The learning cycle process was demonstrated by Fuller with the audience participating in the development of a learning cycle for the atomic-molecular theory. This activity illustrated the im- portance of developing a need on the part of the student for the concept hefore presenting the concept to the student.

Patricia J. Smith (4) presented a descri~tion of her work on the application of the principles of piaget to teaching chemistry in the secondary schools, where the average level of reasoning skills is wen lower than at thc college freshman Irvvl. Periodic classificatitm and atomic structure are twu of the more important concepts in heginniug chemistry, hut many students are unable to utilize the power of these cou- ceots after studvine them in the conventional manner. Two pokihle reasonHfo;this are the lack of the formal reasoning skills necessary to understand a complex classification system and the lack of an empirical basis on which to base the theory. The examination of elementarv and iunior hieh school cur- riculum materials gave no reason to'helieve that high srhool chernistr? studrnts have had the personal sensual experiences that are necessary un sewr as the basis inr a meaningful un- derstanding of atomic structurr or 01 the physical and chem- ical properties of elements which are the 1)ifiis for the periodic classification. Herause of these difficulties, new units on pa- riodic rli~isifiratiun and atomicstructure weredevelooed for use with college preparatory classes. Experiments and exer- cises were designed to aive meauine to the conceots involved in rli~asifiration, to dem!mstrate the need t'or thcoreticnl roncepts, and to develoo reasoning skills through diseouili- bratiin.

- - J. Dudley Herron gave a talk (5) on a series of maxims that

he has developed from his personal experienchs and from his studies of various aspects of modern learning theories. These maxims might he called the basic precepts of good teaching. In combined and abbreviated form his 15 maxims are: (1) Learning is areatest when ~ e o ~ l e who want to learn. are olaced . . , . in a stimul&ng environment with enthusiastic people, and are suhiected to a oleasant exoerience. (2) I t is easier to learn something when it is perfectiy clear and when you can get irequent unamhiguuus ieedhack ahout your progress. (3) M'hvn the logic hehind an idea is new, the ideil doesn't make senw and is resisted. Things that make senst. arr remembered for a long time, hut nonsense isn't. (4) It's hard to learn something that is taught in a language you don't understand, or when new words or ideas are defined in terms of other new words or ideas or in words that have a variety of meanings. (5) When tauaht toaether. closelv related ideas are easilv con- iused, hut once (me idea is thoroughly undt.rsrwd, it can serve as a h s i s for learning related ideas. tC) In "natural" learnine the idea always preceeds the terminology. Too often, schooling

Volume 56. Number 1, January 1979 1 7

results in learning words without learning the ideas behind them. Examples from chemistry were used by Herron to il- lustrate the application of these maxims to the teaching of chemistry.

Leonard C. Grotz presented a paper (6) in which he re- viewed the recent literature on teaching strateaies. The analysis of the literature was done on the gasis of :model of the educational process. Onlv about 10% of the articles on chwniral educatinn are c o n c e r d with teaching and learning; most i~rtirlw aw ronctwwl with course content. Of the anirlrs concerned with aspects of teaching and learning, the greatest number are concerned with packaging and delivery systems and with the develo~ment of low-level introductorv courses

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or special relevancy courses. Very few articles 5nve been concerned with specific teaching strategies or with evaluation and feedback. Only relatively recently chemists have become interested in the learning process as evidenced by the small hut growing number of o a ~ e r s on a~olications of the ideas bf ~ i G e t . ~ a & d upon his :tidies of the chemical literature and on readinas in educational ~svcholopv. Grotz r resented 16 strategiesfor the improvement of chemistry teaching. Items not already referred to above in this summary were: (1) the use of Ausubel's assimilation theory of learning to direct meaningful learning; (2) the use of Bloom's Taxonomy to evaluate the cognitive level of learning achievements; (3) the use of concept analysis to improve concept undeetanding; (4) the use of Gagne's hierarchy of intellectual skills to make sure that teaching strategies are complete; and (5) the deletion of rote teaching by relating the teaching process to the cognitive structures of the students.

The major concern of members of the audience was that the use of Piagetiau-based procedures would reduce the amount of chemistry that can he taught in general chemistry courses. Theresponse of the speakers to this type of question was that

the rote memorization process now used by most students was not real learning anyway, and once students have developed the mental techniques to achieve the meaningful learning of chemistry, the pace of the teaching can be greatly accelerated. This, combined with the use of more meaningful basic struc- tures of chemistry, would eliminate only unnecessary details from the course. A second concern was the problem of proving that Piagetian based teaching procedures do, in fact, improve the reasoning abilities of concrete operational students. This problem is compounded by the fact that no paper and pencil tests have been developed that can replace the personal in- terrogation procedures that are needed to evaluate the rea- soning processes of students. Piagetian based procedures, however, have been shown to greatly improve the under- standing of chemical concepts by the formal operational students, thereby indicating that they do constitute improved teaching. Bibliography (1) Psyehalogieal Problems in Learning Chemistry, Richard W.

Johnson, Counseling Service, University of Wisconsin-Madi- son, 432 N. Murray St., Madison, WI 53706.

(2) The Development of Reasoning Abilities, C. Tomlinson- Keasey, Psychology Dept., University of California-Riverside, Riverside, CA 92521.

(3) The ADAPT Program: Strategies Based upon Piaget, Robert G. Fuller, Dept. of Physics and Astronomy, University of Ne- braska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE 68588.

(4) Piagetian Applications in the Secondary Schools, Patricia J. Smith, Air Academy High School, USAF Academy. CO . . 80840.

(5) What I know about Learning, J. Dudley Herron, Dept. of Chemistry, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907.

(6) Teaching Strategies: State of the Art, Leonard C. Grotz, University of Wisconsin, Waukesha County Center, 1500 University Drive, Waukesha, WI 53186.

8 I Journal of Chemical Education