Workshop Chemistry

Prevailing modes of instruction, often passive in nature, do not address crucial issues for student success in science: the need for students to become part of an intellectual community, the differences in the ways students learn, and the powerful role that mentoring can play in involving students in science. Furthermore, students who spend most of their instructional time listening to lectures seldom learn to communicate scientific ideas and to become part of a problem-solving team, skills that industry tells us are crucial to success in the workplace. Workshop Chemistry is a peer-led team-learning model of instruction that provides an active learning experience for students, creates new leadership roles for those who have done well, and involves faculty in the process of reform. A modest reduction in lecture or recitation time is replaced by a 2-hour student-directed small group problem-solving and model-building workshop. The Workshop Chemistry Project is a coalition of faculty, learning specialists, and students from a variety of institutions organized around the theme of developing the workshop model as an integral part of the course structure. Several brief descriptions of the workshop courses offered in the Fall of 1995 are provided, along with some sample workshop problems. Surveys, focus groups, student logs, faculty interviews, and actual course results provide insight into the enhanced learning in the workshop and the progress of the project towards its goals.