{"title":"Exploring High School Students’ Chemical Explanatory Levels of Thin-Layer Chromatography through Reflective Inquiry","authors":"Yu-Jan Tseng, Zuway-R Hong, Huann-shyang Lin","doi":"10.1021/acs.jchemed.4c00084","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Students’ scientific competencies can be improved by structured inquiry. Inquiry teaching laboratories that involve thin-layer chromatography (TLC) techniques most often involve students examining experimental results. In addition to the integration of structured inquiry into the teaching laboratories of TLC, this quasi-experimental study involved students in reflection on experimental procedures. We aimed to investigate the impacts of this combination of structured inquiry and reflection (i.e., reflective inquiry) on students’ chemical explanatory levels. A total of <i>n</i> = 107 11th grade students participated in this study. Students in the experimental group (EG; <i>n</i> = 58) engaged in a 10-week reflective inquiry while students in the comparison group (CG; <i>n</i> = 49) engaged in confirmation inquiry. Results showed that reflective inquiry enhanced students’ explanations at the experiential level. At the theoretical descriptive level, students displayed misconceptions or misinterpretation of scientific concepts. Furthermore, presenting the dynamic interactions within the TLC system at the theoretical explanatory level was challenging to students. The TLC assessment can provide chemistry teachers with the opportunity to diagnose students’ misconceptions of the TLC system at both the experiential level and the theoretical explanatory level.","PeriodicalId":43,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Chemical Education","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.5000,"publicationDate":"2024-08-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Chemical Education","FirstCategoryId":"92","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jchemed.4c00084","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"CHEMISTRY, MULTIDISCIPLINARY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Students’ scientific competencies can be improved by structured inquiry. Inquiry teaching laboratories that involve thin-layer chromatography (TLC) techniques most often involve students examining experimental results. In addition to the integration of structured inquiry into the teaching laboratories of TLC, this quasi-experimental study involved students in reflection on experimental procedures. We aimed to investigate the impacts of this combination of structured inquiry and reflection (i.e., reflective inquiry) on students’ chemical explanatory levels. A total of n = 107 11th grade students participated in this study. Students in the experimental group (EG; n = 58) engaged in a 10-week reflective inquiry while students in the comparison group (CG; n = 49) engaged in confirmation inquiry. Results showed that reflective inquiry enhanced students’ explanations at the experiential level. At the theoretical descriptive level, students displayed misconceptions or misinterpretation of scientific concepts. Furthermore, presenting the dynamic interactions within the TLC system at the theoretical explanatory level was challenging to students. The TLC assessment can provide chemistry teachers with the opportunity to diagnose students’ misconceptions of the TLC system at both the experiential level and the theoretical explanatory level.
期刊介绍:
The Journal of Chemical Education is the official journal of the Division of Chemical Education of the American Chemical Society, co-published with the American Chemical Society Publications Division. Launched in 1924, the Journal of Chemical Education is the world’s premier chemical education journal. The Journal publishes peer-reviewed articles and related information as a resource to those in the field of chemical education and to those institutions that serve them. JCE typically addresses chemical content, activities, laboratory experiments, instructional methods, and pedagogies. The Journal serves as a means of communication among people across the world who are interested in the teaching and learning of chemistry. This includes instructors of chemistry from middle school through graduate school, professional staff who support these teaching activities, as well as some scientists in commerce, industry, and government.