Measuring Meaningful Learning in the Undergraduate Chemistry Laboratory: A National, Cross-Sectional Study

Research on laboratory learning points to the need to better understand what and how students learn in the undergraduate chemistry laboratory. The Meaningful Learning in the Laboratory Instrument (MLLI) was administered to general and organic chemistry students from 15 colleges and universities across the United States in order to measure the students’ cognitive and affective expectations and experiences within the context of performing experiments in their chemistry laboratory courses. Data were analyzed using exploratory factor analysis and cluster analysis. The factor analysis revealed unique mental frameworks for how students think about their laboratory experiences. Exploration of the cluster analysis output indicated a four cluster solution for general chemistry students and a three cluster solution for organic chemistry students. The clusters were further analyzed by examining item pre versus post scatterplots to characterize their unique cognitive and affective expectations and experiences for lea...

[1]  L. Cronbach.  Coefficient alpha and the internal structure of tests , 1951 .

[2]  Stacey Lowery Bretz,et al.  Using cluster analysis to characterize meaningful learning in a first-year university chemistry laboratory course , 2015 .

[3]  M. Sarstedt,et al.  A Concise Guide to Market Research , 2019, Springer Texts in Business and Economics.

[4]  Amy J. Phelps,et al.  Virtual laboratory vs. traditional laboratory: which is more effective for teaching electrochemistry? , 2013 .

[5]  Stacey Lowery Bretz.  Novak's Theory of Education: Human Constructivism and Meaningful Learning , 2001 .

[6]  T. Caliński,et al.  A dendrite method for cluster analysis , 1974 .

[7]  H. Marsh,et al.  Longitudinal tests of competing factor structures for the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale: traits, ephemeral artifacts, and stable response styles. , 2010, Psychological assessment.

[8]  P. Sopp.  Cluster analysis. , 1996, Veterinary immunology and immunopathology.

[9]  J. Novak.  Human constructivism: A unification of psychological and epistemological phenomena in meaning making , 1993 .

[10]  Stacey Lowery Bretz,et al.  What Faculty Interviews Reveal about Meaningful Learning in the Undergraduate Chemistry Laboratory , 2013 .

[11]  J. H. Ward.  Hierarchical Grouping to Optimize an Objective Function , 1963 .

[12]  Richard Swan,et al.  The Virtual ChemLab Project: A Realistic and Sophisticated Simulation of Inorganic Qualitative Analysis , 2004 .

[13]  G. W. Milligan,et al.  An examination of procedures for determining the number of clusters in a data set , 1985 .

[14]  Melanie M. Cooper,et al.  Effect of cooperative problem-based lab instruction on metacognition and problem-solving skills , 2012 .

[15]  J. J. Lagowski,et al.  The Role of the Laboratory in Chemistry Instruction , 2008 .

[16]  Jacob Cohen.  Measurement Educational and Psychological Educational and Psychological Measurement Eta-squared and Partial Eta-squared in Fixed Factor Anova Designs Educational and Psychological Measurement Additional Services and Information For , 2022 .

[17]  Gavin W. Fulmer,et al.  Student Outcomes from Innovations in Undergraduate Chemistry Laboratory Learning. , 2012 .

[18]  Stacey Lowery Bretz,et al.  Development of an Assessment Tool To Measure Students’ Meaningful Learning in the Undergraduate Chemistry Laboratory , 2015 .

[19]  C. Giannoulis,et al.  Improving Students’ Inquiry Skills and Self-Efficacy through Research-Inspired Modules in the General Chemistry Laboratory , 2015 .

[20]  B. Everitt,et al.  Cluster Analysis: Everitt/Cluster Analysis , 2011 .

[21]  P. Kirschner,et al.  Agreement between student expectations, experiences and actual objectives of practicals in the natural sciences at the Open university of The Netherlands , 1993 .

[22]  R. Koeske,et al.  Peer Instruction in the General Chemistry Laboratory: Assessment of Student Learning , 2006 .

[23]  Dawn Rickey,et al.  Effects of Context on Students’ Molecular‐Level Ideas , 2008 .

[24]  Xiaoying Xu,et al.  Understanding the State of the Art for Measurement in Chemistry Education Research: Examining the Psychometric Evidence , 2013 .

[25]  Michael R. Abraham.  What Can Be Learned from Laboratory Activities? Revisiting 32 Years of Research , 2011 .

[26]  N. Reid,et al.  The role of laboratory work in university chemistry , 2007 .

[27]  Peter J. Rousseeuw,et al.  Finding Groups in Data: An Introduction to Cluster Analysis , 1990 .

[28]  Mary B. Nakhleh,et al.  Students' Attitudes toward and Conceptual Understanding of Chemical Instrumentation. , 2004 .

[29]  Dawn Rickey,et al.  Effectiveness of a MORE Laboratory Module in Prompting Students To Revise Their Molecular-Level Ideas about Solutions , 2007 .

[30]  Cianán B. Russell,et al.  A comparative study of traditional, inquiry-based, and research-based laboratory curricula: impacts on understanding of the nature of science , 2011 .

[31]  Stacey Lowery Bretz,et al.  Students' Understandings of Acid Strength: How Meaningful Is Reliability When Measuring Alternative Conceptions. , 2015 .

[32]  Marcy H. Towns,et al.  Kolb for Chemists: David A. Kolb and Experiential Learning Theory , 2001 .

[33]  Melanie M. Cooper,et al.  Changing the Laboratory: Effects of a Laboratory Course on Students' Attitudes and Perceptions , 2006 .

[34]  Vincent N. Lunetta,et al.  The Laboratory in Science Education: Foundations for the Twenty-First Century , 2004 .

[35]  Saskia Brand-Gruwel,et al.  Does a New Learning Environment Come Up to Students' Expectations? A Longitudinal Study , 2008 .

[36]  G. Weaver,et al.  Participants' reflections two and three years after an introductory chemistry course-embedded research experience , 2013 .

[37]  Eric Malina,et al.  How Students Use Scientific Instruments to Create Understanding: CCD Spectrophotometers , 2003 .

[38]  Pasl A. Jalil.  A Procedural Problem in Laboratory Teaching; Experiment and Explain, or Vice-Versa? , 2006 .

[39]  Alexandra Hilosky,et al.  Is Laboratory Based Instruction in Beginning College-Level Chemistry Worth the Effort and Expense? , 1998 .

[40]  T. A. Gatlin,et al.  Students' Experience in a General Chemistry Cooperative Problem Based Laboratory , 2011 .

[41]  Melanie M. Cooper,et al.  Design and Validation of an Instrument To Assess Metacognitive Skillfulness in Chemistry Problem Solving , 2009 .

[42]  Gregory L. Waddoups,et al.  The "Virtual ChemLab" Project: A Realistic and Sophisticated Simulation of Organic Synthesis and Organic Qualitative Analysis , 2005 .

[43]  Eric Malina,et al.  Learning Chemistry in a Laboratory Environment , 2002 .

[44]  Avi Hofstein,et al.  The Role of the Laboratory in Science Teaching: Neglected Aspects of Research , 1982 .

[45]  Barry H. Cohen.  Explaining Psychological Statistics , 2013 .

[46]  T. Levine,et al.  Eta Squared, Partial Eta Squared, and Misreporting of Effect Size in Communication Research , 2002 .

[47]  Daniel S. Domin,et al.  Students’ perceptions of when conceptual development occurs during laboratory instruction , 2007 .