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Using Modules to Teach General Chemistry
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Learning "Problems" As Betsy Saw
Them
Improving one's teaching and its effects on students' learning seldom
occurs simply "for the heck of it." Rather, the process of analyzing
one's teaching practices usually begins with some sort of knotty
problem, some sort of dilemma that frustrates or intrigues the
instructor. So it was with Betsy, who faced a number of persistent
"problems," or issues related to her students' learning.
Boredom. Betsy found that relying on traditional methods of
teaching introductory chemistry simply left students bored. Boredom
by itself was not the problem; the learning problem arose when bored
students become disengaged and uninterested, leaving only the most
motivated and disciplined students to press ahead and do whatever was
necessary to satisfy course requirements. And even then, persistence
in the face of boredom was no guarantee that the students succeeded
in gaining any kind of deep learning of chemistry.
Not accommodating diverse learning styles. Betsy was also
concerned about the student disengagement that resulted from
instruction that didn't accommodate
multiple learning
styles.a
Teaching science to non-majors. Betsy was an undergraduate
chemistry student at Hamline College, which is another liberal arts
college in St. Paul. Betsy's own liberal arts undergraduate education
may help explain why it is so important to her that students who take
her Chem 111 to satisfy St. Thomas's general education requirements
have a positive experience with science. As Betsy put it, "If they're
going to have only one science course, I want it to be a good
experience." Rather than seeing this course as just a bureaucratic
requirement, she instead sought to fulfill the ideal of a
well-rounded liberal arts education, which includes a basic
understanding of some kind of science:
We have probably two hundred students, and maybe ten of them will go
on to be chemists. The other 190 won't, and a majority of them might
not even go into science. I think, "Well, this is their one science
class and they're going to go out and be whatever they might
be--professionals in economics or business. I want them to know what
science is about." I don't want my General Chemistry class to be
focused only on teaching them these topics so that when my colleague
gets them in Organic, they're prepared for that...because they might
not ever go there.
Instructor dissatisfaction. As Betsy points out, classes that
are boring for students can be just as boring and uninteresting for
those who teach them.
[Teaching with modules]--it's just so much more fun for me. I just
enjoy it much more, it's a more real thing. My enthusiasm is more
genuine, I would say. I'm learning from it. I would say Blue Light
was probably the one that was most like this. I just learned a lot
from it.
a.
See, for example, Tony Grasha's
(1996) Teaching with style: A practical guide to enhancing
learning by understanding teaching and learning styles.
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