Active learning applications in the history of chemistry: Pre-service chemistry teachers’ level of knowledge and views

In the light of the above-mentioned rationale, the main aim of this study was to investigate the effect of the History and Philosophy of Chemistry-I course based on active learning applications on the levels of knowledge of pre-service chemistry teachers about the history of chemistry. The study also sought to reveal pre-service chemistry teachers’ views about active learning applications, and whether these applications help to develop pre-service chemistry teachers’ abilities in the context of peer assessment, creativity, inter-group relationships and preparing posters or not.

Based on these aims, the research questions were addressed as follows:

What was the level of the pre-service chemistry teachers’ knowledge about he History of Chemistry at the beginning of the study?
What was the level of the pre-service chemistry teachers’ knowledge about the History of Chemistry at the end of the study?
What are the views of the pre-service chemistry teachers about active learning applications?
Do active learning applications help pre-service chemistry teachers develop abilities such as peer assessment, creativity, inter-group relationships and preparing posters?

Method

The study was designed as a case study since it was conducted in a small group before implementing results in a larger group. Kalof, Dan and Dietz (2008) have stated that case studies can be useful when researchers want to examine how a particular program or intervention will unfold in use; the intervention can be introduced in one setting before applying it broadly. In this context, active learning applications related to the History of Chemistry were developed by the researchers and applied it a small group. Firstly in the study, an open-ended questionnaire about the history of chemistry was administered to the group before the instruction. Thereafter, the group was instructed via active learning applications for seven weeks. After the instruction, the same questionnaire was administered to the same group. At the same time, semi-structured interviews were conducted individually with all of the pre-service teachers after the instruction.

Participants

The participants of the study consisted of 38 pre-service chemistry teachers enrolled in a History and Philosophy of Chemistry-I course in a public university in Turkey. All of the pre-service chemistry teachers volunteered to participate in the study. The pre-service chemistry teachers had quite similar backgrounds since they had been admitted to the chemistry education department only after they had successfully passed a university entrance examination. Also, the socioeconomic status of the pre-service chemistry teachers was similar, with the majority of them coming from low- to middle-class families. The ages of the pre-service chemistry teachers ranged from 20 to 23 years. The study was conducted during the 2012–2013 spring semester.

Data collection

The data of this study was collected through an open-ended questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. The open-ended questionnaire consisted of five questions and was developed by the researchers in the light of various studies (Bayrakçeken, et al., 2011; Şimşek, 2011). The questionnaire was administered to identify the pre-service chemistry teachers’ prior knowledge four weeks before the instruction. The same questionnaire was employed one week after the instruction.

Fifteen-minute semi-structured interviews were conducted individually with all of the pre-service teachers to determine their opinions about the active learning applications and whether these applications helped them to develop abilities such as peer assessment, creativity, inter-group relationships and preparing posters after the instruction. An audio recorder was used in the interviews and the entire interview was recorded. The fourth researcher conducted each interview session. In the interview, each pre-service teacher was asked two questions that had been developed by the researchers. The opinions of two specialists in chemistry education were enlisted in developing the questions for the interviews. The interview questions took their final form after revisions and additions were made in line with the recommendations of the specialists. These questions and their targets are presented in Table 1.

Table 1. Content of questions in the interview

Question	Target
1st Question	Revealing effects of the active learning activities on the pre-service teachers
2nd Question	Comparison of active learning activities in the History and Philosophy of Chemistry-I Course with other courses.

Procedure

History and Philosophy of Chemistry-I is an elective course that is studied in the spring semester of the fourth year of the chemistry education program. The content of the course encompasses ancient Chemistry, the antique and Hellenistic eras, origins of alchemy and Islamic alchemy, European alchemy, alchemy in the Italian Renaissance, Chemistry in the 16th and 17th centuries, and Introduction to modern Chemistry. The course was comprised of five steps, as follows:

The pre-service chemistry teachers’ oral presentations
The pre-service chemistry teachers’ poster presentations
The assessment of the pre-service chemistry teachers’ poster presentations with a rubric
Preparing a timeline
Assessment of the pre-service chemistry teachers’ timelines.

Before the instruction, the pre-service chemistry teachers were informed about the instruction. Their responsibilities and the responsibilities of the instructors, the utilization of resources, the preparation of posters were also explained. The 38 pre-service chemistry teachers then formed groups of five or six among themselves and their research topics were determined randomly. The groups carried out their research over the three weeks. In this process, the instructor (the first researcher), evaluated the work of each group, made recommendations, and provided feedback with guiding questions. In the following weeks, the groups started to present their research topics to the class.

All lessons started with each group’s oral presentation. In the oral presentation, the pre-service chemistry teachers focused on important periods in the history of chemistry, the general characteristics of these periods, the important scientists of those periods, and these scientists’ contributions to chemistry. Thereafter, the groups presented their posters. While they prepared their posters, it was requested of them to prepare the poster in accordance with scientific format. In other words, they were asked to make sure that the poster included an abstract, keywords, an introduction, method, conclusion and reference section. The groups then summarized their research topics with their posters. After the groups’ poster presentations, the pre-service chemistry teachers in the other groups evaluated their peers’ posters according to the rubric. The pre-service chemistry teachers also made evaluations about the posters. At the end of this stage, the instructor explained her assessments about the posters, emphasizing their strengths and weaknesses. Following the groups’ presentations and the pre-service chemistry teachers’ assessments, the other groups began to prepare their timelines based on the contents of the presentations. In this stage, all of the pre-service chemistry teachers shared their opinions with the group and the group discussion about the contents and structure of the timelines began. The students then came to a consensus about the content and structure of the timelines, and shared their timelines with the class. In the last stage, all of the groups’ timelines were evaluated by the instructor and the pre-service chemistry teachers who presented oral and poster presentations. During the assessment, some incorrect knowledge about scientists, their contributions to chemistry, and the general characteristics of the periods in the history of chemistry were discussed with all the groups and explained. This procedure was conducted over a 7-week period (two 45-minute sessions per week). One week after the procedure, an open-ended questionnaire was employed as a post-measurement.

Data analysis

Data from the open-ended questionnaire and the records of the interviews were assessed by content analysis. In this process, the two researchers (the first and second researchers) separately coded the dates and the percentage of agreement between the two series of codes was calculated to be 0.94 (for the open-ended questionnaire), and 0.89 (for the interviews) (Miles & Huberman, 1994).