Session 3           There were two parts to this session

Part I: Been There! Got the T-shirt!

Part II : How best to take a chunk and change the approach to teaching it to enthuse people to do it for themselves?

In this part of the session there were reports from groups with experience of teaching/ designing contextual based teaching material.

 Report 1:   Salters style - what is it and will it work in HE?

Dr Gwen Pilling, Salters Project (University of York)

Summarises the key features of Salters' style 'A' -levels and considers what adopting Salters style courses in the universities would mean. 

Report 2:   Sensational Chemistry

Dr Stuart Bennett, Open University

This Open University course (ST240 - Our Chemical Environment)  is aimed at people who are familiar with learning but not chemistry (90% no background in chemistry). Potential students who were consulted about chemistry had identified problems with learning chemistry.  The philosophy really was to sit where the students does.

Report 3: Chemistry Within, Chemistry Without 

Dr Patrick McGowan/Terry Kee, Leeds University

This context based approach (Education in Chemistry - May, 1997) has been tested at levels 0 and 3 and is currently being tested at level 2. The aim of this approach is "to present chemical facts and principles through a ‘storyboard approach’ ".

 Report 4:Big bangs, Tomorrow's car and USA style

Dr Michael Cole and Dr Megan McLean, Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU)

Work at MMU has focused on an integrated Foundation level programme using context based teaching. Currently material being written uses 4 topics to introduce the themes/storylines that hold the chemistry and moves towards an integrated first year course.To show that this approach is scientifically acceptable reference was made to 2 large projects running in the United States. (The MODULAR CHEM consortium (MC) and the "Chemlinks" programme )

 Reflecting on the presentations, groups discussed the following: 

"How best to take a chunk and change the approach to teaching it to enthuse people to do it for themselves?"

 The results of this discussion were:

 a) The best way to start

• Identify a chunk over which you have control (likely to be prescribed to some extent by colleagues).
• Identify the intended outcomes / chemical concepts/ chemical themes/ skills
• Identify a storyline which leads to these outcomes.
• Use a storyline to engage interest (ie. give the reward up-front).
• Devise/collect resources which can be used flexibly and provide a wide range of teaching and learning opportunities.

b) Learning approaches

• Lecture should not be the primary mode of delivery.
• Seminars/Lectures should be interactive.
• Level of independent learning.
• Use papers, articles, reprints.
• Consider Arts/Social Science methods of delivery.
• Use pre-lab exercises.
• Move labs from recipe ® flow chart approach ® problem solvings. Involve cross-disciplinary exercises, eg. biological uses of liquid scintillation counting.
• Allow students to have ownership of the learning process.
• User tried and tested approaches like the Keller Plan which:- give detailed objectives; are specific about outcomes; give procedures to be used to learn (books, lectures, video, WWW, tape); have self-assessment built in; allow students to take fomative test
• Use group work allowing students to research a topic for themselves.
• Assess project work using variety of techniques:- poster; project report; viva