Much of the literature claiming that adoption of non-lecture pedagogies improves student outcomes fails to define what is meant by “outcome” and to justify whether said “outcomes” are worthwhile. We contend that the intellectual core of chemistry is making sense of phenomena in terms of atomic/molecular behavior and that useful outcome measures should have the potential to engage students in this sort of work. This study was designed to support claims as to how students can be effectively supported in atomic/molecular sensemaking. We related class-level characteristics (<i>e.g.</i>, assessment and instructional emphasis, teaching methods used) and learner characteristics (<i>e.g.</i>, scores on tests purported to measure math- and chem- preparation) to student-constructed explanations for the exothermic dissolution of LiCl in water across three types of chemistry enactment. These enactments included two transformed courses and one that reflected traditional curricular and pedagogical norms. Key findings of this work include: 1) the amount of time dedicated to non-lecture pedagogies does not directly relate to students’ success in explaining the focal phenomenon and 2) extended, coherent emphasis on explaining events similar to our focal phenomenon was associated with more sophisticated student explanations. This analysis suggests that the intellectual focus of class meetings and assessments is at least as important as the pedagogy used.

Beyond pedagogy: Characterizing learning environments that support students in making sense of phenomena

ACS Spring Meeting 2021

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