A review of the research on laboratory learning demonstrates the need to understand student perspectives in order to improve laboratory teaching and learning. Novak's Theory of Meaningful Learning states that the cognitive, affective, and psychomotor domains must be integrated for meaningful learning to occur. The psychomotor domain is inherent in the chemistry laboratory, but the extent to which the cognitive and affective domains are integrated is unknown. For meaningful learning to occur in the laboratory, students must actively integrate both the cognitive domain <i>and</i> the affective domains into the “doing” of their laboratory work. The Meaningful Learning in the Laboratory Inventory (MLILI) was designed to measure students’ cognitive and affective expectations and experiences within the context of conducting experiments in the undergraduate chemistry laboratory. The MLILI was administered online using Qualtrics survey software to general chemistry students (N=436) at the beginning and end of the fall semester. To better understand how students change from pre to post, the data was analyzed using hierarchical agglomerative cluster analysis. Cluster descriptions and implications for teaching and research will be presented.

Analysis of meaningful learning in the General Chemistry laboratory

249th National Meeting (2015)

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