(207d) Knowledge Laboratories: Approach to Facilitate Independent Inquiry and Experiential Learning for 2nd Year Students

Knowledge
Laboratories: Approach to facilitate independent inquiry and experiential
learning for 2^nd year students

Pavan
Inguva¹, Mingrou Xie¹, Umang V. Shah¹*, Clemens
Brechtelsbauer¹

^1*
Department of Chemical Engineering, Imperial College London, South Kensington
Campus, London SW7 2AZ, United Kingdom

Abstract

Introduction

The
learning paradigm of students progressively changes throughout their higher
education journey as they mature and develop the skillset and thought processes
needed as graduate engineers. To facilitate this growth, educators should
provide the appropriate scaffolding both throughout the whole higher education
journey and at each individual step. The nature of the scaffolding can be
understood through Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development. Students in the four
year integrated master’s course at Imperial College have a laboratory component
in each of the first three years.

In
the first year (Foundation Laboratory), students are introduced to the
laboratory setting and are taught essential good lab practices. In the third
year (Discovery Laboratory), students are given a chance to experience a
realistic research setting where they work with an academic member of staff and
can propose both a topic and methodology for research. The second year serves
as a bridge between these two. This growth can be understood through
progression along two axis: fixed problem à
fixed problem-open-ended solution approach  à
open-ended problem and solution approach. Figure 1 schematically represents each
laboratory activity from 1^st to 3^rd year which strives to
gradually develop students’ ability to tackle open-ended.

Figure
1 font-family:" arial> A journey into Discovery

In
the past, Knowledge Laboratory took the form of a ‘cookbook’ recipe style
course like the 1^st year Foundation labs. Students had both a fixed
problem and a fixed solution, but the problems provided and the level of
analysis and rigor expected was commensurate with 2^nd year students’
capabilities. This approach was not popular with multiple cohorts with feedback
indicating that students did not feel intellectually challenged and were not
engaging with the course. Despite operational interventions from handout changes
to the assessment strategy and GTA training exercises, student feedback did not
improve. Upon comprehensive reflection of student feedback, the main issue was
that the teaching philosophy of the Knowledge Lab was very similar to that of
Foundation Lab. Correspondingly the Knowledge Lab experience was inconsiderate
of the learner’s zone of proximal development, and hence failed to engage
students.

Here
we present a case-study to illustrate the redevelopment process and pedagogical
underpinnings of the new Knowledge Labs experience.

Course
Context

This
case-study was offered as one of 12 options that students could choose from all
of which are structured similarly. Each module is broken down into three steps
with step one, the introductory step, being at a difficulty level that is
immediately accessible to the student and each step progressively becoming more
challenging as they are exposed to increasingly newer and complex material. The
course runs over three weeks, with each step taking one week.

In
the case study, students are provided with a sample of degraded aspartame and
are tasked to employ chromatographic techniques to purify and recover the
aspartame.  Step one tasks students to use TLC to analyze a sample of degraded
aspartame that is to be purified. They could identify the degradation pathway
and attempt to identify a suitable solvent composition for good separation. In
step two, students need to develop a suitable method on an analytical HPLC
system to quantitatively analyze the sample. They also need to explore various
process conditions such as composition, mobile-phase flowrate and column
temperature. In the last step, students utilize a preparative HPLC system to
perform the separation at a larger scale and similarly optimize the system.

Pedagogic
underpinning of module development

The
pedagogical philosophy underpinning the restructure can be understood through a
constructivist lens which has found broad application in scientific and
engineering education, particularly in the lab (Abdulwahed
& Nagy, 2009) 200%;font-family:" arial>. Vygotsky (Vygotsky,
1978) font-family:" arial> characterizes the learner as someone who
actively constructs their knowledge, with this construction taking place at the
learner’s ‘zone of proximal development’ by interactions with fellow students
and teaching staff. This interaction can be activated through the provision of
a well-structured course which includes for instance adequate communication and
meetings between learners and teachers (Chen,
Shah & Brechtelsbauer, 2016) line-height:200%;font-family:" arial> and providing a sequence of
planned activities that suitably guide students with the teacher acting as a
facilitator whilst simultaneously providing students the independence and
autonomy to pursue their own approach (Hodson,
1996) font-family:" arial>.

The
zone of proximal development is shown in Figure 2. The entire module can be
thought of as an iterative activity that expands the domain of knowledge and
activities that students can confidently do unaided. Each step therefore has
been structured to simultaneously build up student’s capability in the
objective for that step and set the context for the next step. As each step is
appropriately placed in the learner’s zone of proximal development and each
step helps to nurture students such that the next step is now within their zone
of proximal development. For instance, using analytical HPLC before the module
starts may be in the ‘out of reach’ zone, but by the end of step 1, HPLC
techniques now firmly lies in the student’s zone of proximal development.

Support
and Scaffolding Provided to Students

The
teaching philosophy of the module represents a significant shift away from the
high school or 1^st year ‘cookbook’ procedural style of labs to a
more open ended and self-directed course structure.

page-break-after:avoid">

Figure 2 " arial>. Student’s Zone of
Proximal Development at the Beginning of Step 1

This
may be intimidating to students and as such, appropriate scaffolding and
support needs to be provided along the way. Examples of the support given to students
include:

text-indent:-18.0pt;line-height:200%"> line-height:200%;font-family:" arial>1)   
font-family:" arial>Handouts: The handouts provided contain a
problem statement and possible sequence of experiments to conduct for each
step. These handouts contain references to relevant literature and are kept
deliberately brief to nudge students to review literature independently.

text-indent:-18.0pt;line-height:200%"> line-height:200%;font-family:" arial>2)   
font-family:" arial>Training videos on the operational aspects of
the course such as setting up and running the TLC and the HPLC systems.
Students are encouraged to view these videos before the start of the lab
session so that they would have adequate operational knowledge and would be
able to make full use of their laboratory time instead of focusing on
operational issues.

text-indent:-18.0pt;line-height:200%"> line-height:200%;font-family:" arial>3)   
font-family:" arial>Frequent review sessions with their project
supervisor, a graduate teaching assistant (GTA). These provide an opportunity
to review the work already carried out and to plan the next step. Students are
strongly encouraged to pursue ideas beyond the provided suggestions from the
handout. These ideas, together with the proposed workflow for the week are
agreed upon with the GTA.

Evaluation
of Effectiveness

The
overall satisfaction of the module has been evaluated using the university’s
internal student feedback mechanism known as SOLE. Compared to 2015, the
overall satisfaction towards the module has been observed to increase by ~35%.

A
survey to understand student’s response to the chromatography module
(case-study) was carried out in 2019.  Out of the 11 students who participated
in this module, n=10 responded to this survey and the results are presented
below. 

The
survey results prove that each module step was planned in an appropriate manner
with students agreeing that the structure was logical and each step was well
situated in their zone of proximal development. This is also reflected in
student’s perception of their skill level and their confidence to apply the
techniques learnt in the future with almost all students indicating they are
confident in using TLC and HPLC in their future practice. Lastly, students also
mostly indicated that the level of support and scaffolding provided during the
course was adequate for their learning.

Figure 3 " arial>. Chromatography Module
Survey Results

Conclusion

This
study evidently demonstrates an approach to facilitate independent inquiry and
experiential learning in a laboratory based teaching projects. By empowering
students with increased ownership of their projects and flexibility to propose
and solve real-life process questions in an authentic learning environment,
students feel intellectually stimulated and engage better with the course. This
study highlights the important of appropriate scaffolding to ensure that
students do not feel overwhelmed with such a jump from traditional ‘cookbook’
approaches to open-ended projects. Course design aspects like structure and teaching
material also needs careful consideration in context of Vygotsky’s zone of
proximal development.

References

200%;text-autospace:none">Abdulwahed,
M. & Nagy, Z.K. (2009) Applying Kolb’s Experiential Learning Cycle for
Laboratory Education. Journal of Engineering Education. 98 (3), 283–294.

200%;text-autospace:none"> 200%;font-family:" arial>Chen, W., Shah, U. & Brechtelsbauer,
C. (2016) The discovery laboratory – A student-centred experiential learning
practical: Part I – Overview. Education for Chemical Engineers. 17 (0),
44–53.

200%;text-autospace:none"> 200%;font-family:" arial>Hodson, D. (1996) Laboratory work as
scientific method: Three decades of confusion and distortion. Journal of
Curriculum Studies. 28 (2), 115–135.

200%;text-autospace:none"> 200%;font-family:" arial>Vygotsky, L.S. (1978) Interaction between
learning and development. Mind and Society. pp.79–91.