The effect of integrated course and faculty development: Experiences of a university chemistry department in the Philippines

It is widely recognized that lectures continue to dominate college chemistry instruction, especially in developing countries, and that lectures limit student intellectual engagement. To address this concern, a General Chemistry course in a Philippine university was reconstructed to implement an instructional cycle consisting of three phases: a plenary or mini‐lecture, seatwork activity, and a summary or closure. An expert instructor coached the instructors to improve their teaching. Two instructors were involved in pilot implementation and 13 instructors in a large‐scale implementation. This article describes the instructors’ adoption of the instructional cycle using qualitative and quantitative methods that involved multiple data sources. The instructional cycle and intensive coaching enabled most instructors to change their practices, shift their focus from teaching to learning, and enhance their knowledge of student learning difficulties. Nine instructors were able to significantly change their teaching and apply meaningful student seatwork in their lessons. These nine instructors used student seatwork and activities 30–70% of the time, whereas previously 90% of the time involved lectures. Videotape records showed that more than 70% of the students were continuously on task. Four instructors had considerable difficulties in applying the new approach but also had difficulties with conventional lectures. The project constituted the start of a departmental reorientation with a focus on effectiveness of teaching and learning. Subsequently the faculty and course development model developed in this study was used to revise other courses. The theory of Rogan and Grayson proved useful in describing the change processes.