Enhancing concept understanding through the use of micro chemistry equipment and collaborative activities

This paper reports on the views of teacher-trainees who participated in a summative evaluation phase of a micro-scale chemistry collaborative instruction scenario via developed exemplary curriculum materials (the MCE approach) to enhance concept-based practical work in the University of Education, Winneba. The evaluation involved field testing of the materials to investigate the effectiveness of the MCE approach fused with collaboration compared to individual “traditional” cook-book activities on the learning of chemistry concepts by Level 200 teacher-trainees in an introductory analytical chemistry class. A total of 40 chemistry students participated in the study. The same teacher taught the inorganic chemistry topics accompanied by collaborative micro-scale practical activities to an experimental group of chemistry students (N=10) and taught the same content topic using only the MCE teaching approaches to a control group made up of biology and integrated science students (N=30). The research design made use of triangulation procedures, involving student achievement test, observation of the use of MCE approach in context by students, interviews and questionnaires. During the 10-week intervention, students carried out 10 collaborative MCE-based practical activities. The results of the study indicated that teacher trainees’ reactions to the MCE approach were vastly positive. They reported that their collaboration in the MCE study was a professionally developing experience. Besides the affective outcomes, students exposed to the collaborative approach appeared to develop better scientific reasoning skills towards misconcepts discovered by engaging in small group discussions and reflections during micro-scale hands-on/minds-on practical activities than their colleagues in the control group. This paper concludes that the MCE-collaborative approach developed in this study with exemplary lesson materials, which contained adequate procedural specifications, were feasible for use in the University of Education, Winneba, and were effective in providing positive learning experiences for teacher-trainees.