Collaborative Research: Mapping the Dimensions of the Undergraduate Chemistry Laboratory: Faculty Perspectives on Curriculum, Pedagogy, and Assessment

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Chemistry (12), Science and Technology Assessments (91)There is a rich literature regarding the content and pedagogy of laboratories, both in chemistry and in related disciplines such as physics. However their roles and nature have been changing, in part because innovative technologies open up new opportunities for teaching and learning in laboratories. This project seeks to characterize the diversity of faculty goals for the undergraduate chemistry laboratory, the array of strategies faculty implement in the name of those goals, and the assessments faculty use to measure the extent to which they meet those goals. Through interviews with faculty, factors such as type and size of institution, size of program, the use of teaching assistants, the chemistry discipline (organic versus physical chemistry), and the level of course (lower versus upper division) are being related to laboratory goals, strategies and assessments. Data analysis is structured to develop multiple taxonomies to enable faculty to characterize their own undergraduate laboratory environments. The dimensions of these taxonomies, which will include student cognition and dimensions of inquiry, permit identification of key intermediate or transition states that faculty can target to guide the evolution and development of their own undergraduate laboratory programs. A broader impact of this research will be to open a dialogue within the chemistry education community on the roles of undergraduate laboratories and how these roles can be assessed and improved.