Chemistry Learning Environment

Student Perceptions Of Chemistry Laboratory Learning Environments, Student-Teacher Interactions and Attitudes in Secondary School Gifted Education Classes In Singapore.

Learning Points :

First study conducted in gifted chemistry classrooms in Singapore- may provide useful information for teachers teaching chemistry in lab settings.

Student cohesiveness refers to how involved people are in the environment and the extent of support amongst themselves
Open-endedness refers to the extent of personal growth
System maintenance refers to how orderly the environment is and whether there are clear expectations
Low reliability of the open-endedness scale may be due to the method of teaching
( drilling students how to conduct experiments ) because students were preparing for national exams.

Gifted students reported greater student cohesiveness, integration and better material environment compared to non-gifted students for both actual and preferred environment.
Girls reported greater student cohesiveness in actual environment but prefer greater rule clarity and better material environment
Girls perceived greater student-teacher interaction
Recommendations include:
More-open ended learning environment
More lively and practical approach should be incorporated into both lab and theory work
Improve quality of material environment
Dynamic teacher-student interaction will help manage a more effective learning environment
Interpersonal behaviour of teachers affect students’ attitude towards the subject

New Terms Learnt

Open-endedness
CLEI – Chemistry Learning Emvironment Inventory
QOCRA – Questionnaire on Chemistry Related Attitudes

Watch an exploding banana! Any chemistry teacher out there? Care to explain this,pls?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kio29Ob8oIE