PRÁCTICAS EVALUATIVAS PERSPECTIVA HISTÓRICA

Phenomenography

This study employed phenomenography as one of its theoretical frameworks. Phenomenography is used “to define the different ways in which people experience, interpret, understand, perceive or conceptualize a certain phenomenon or aspect of reality” (Marton 1994; Orgill 2012; Orgill and Bodner 2007). The epistemology of this methodology is that human

experiences are based on the relationship between the person and the world around them (Marton 1994). As such, we consider both the person and their experiences as a whole. The basic assumption of phenomenography is that there is no right or wrong in the phenomenon being investigated. The researcher is not interested in what is ‘real’ but only in how the person conceptualizes the phenomenon under investigation. The participants’ statements are regarded as truthful by the researcher. Marton showed that regardless of the phenomena under investigation there are a limited number of qualitatively different ways, which can be described (Marton 1981). This framework is especially suited for this research study since we are primarily interested in the experiences and perspectives of students regarding the laboratory environment.

Phenomenography has been used in several recent publications to look at student and faculty experiences in the context of chemistry (Lyle and Robinson 2002; Mack and Towns 2016; Stefani and Tsaparlis 2009; Taber 2013). These studies were used to describe the perceptions of faculty and students of different learning environments, faculty perception of using analogies in the classroom (Orgill et al. 2015), faculty understanding of teaching physical chemistry (Mack and Towns 2016), students understanding of climate change (Versprille and Towns 2014), and in looking at students’ perception of laboratory experiences (Russell and Weaver 2011; Weaver et al. 2008). These studies have added rich understanding of the experiences of chemistry students and faculty that can inform curriculum changes to improve chemistry learning. However, there are fewer instances of the use of phenomenography to examine the chemistry laboratory (Domin 2007; Russell and Weaver 2011). Phenomenography shaped the design of this study, the data collection, and a portion of the data analysis of this work.

Situated Cognition

Constructivism asserts that knowledge is actively built by the learner (Bodner 1986). The learner has to integrate their new knowledge with their prior knowledge to build their understanding of concepts. Social constructivism (Solomon 1987; Vygotsky 1980) incorporates the ideas that learning takes place in a social context and that the interaction of the learner with others influence the incorporation of prior knowledge and new ideas. Situated cognition (Brown et al. 1989; Hendricks 2001) builds on both personal and social constructivism. This framework focuses on how the environment in which learning occurs, and the interaction with the learner and this environment affects knowledge construction. This learning environment may include the interaction with instruments and tools of the discipline, and the learner’s interaction with the instructor and other learners in the environment. The undergraduate chemistry laboratory is an ideal environment to apply situated cognition (Russell and Weaver 2011; Szteinberg and Weaver 2013) because it considers the interaction of the learners with people, with course materials and tools, and with their environment to construct an experience. As a result of using this framework, we can observe the impact of all of these interactions in relation to the students’ experiences in the laboratory and their learning in the laboratory.

Cognitive apprenticeship is a critical component of situated cognition (Brown et al. 1989). The interaction of a novice learner with experts as well as other novices leads to the sharing of important skills and experiences. As a result, the novice learns from the expert (instructor) like an apprentice. The instructor scaffolds the learning for the students so that they go towards expert-like development of skills, independence, and problem-solving (Collins et al. 1988). In other words, the students’ instructors and other students support the students’ attempts at the task until they develop independence. Lave and Wenger (1991) has further extended and

refined the ideas about situated cognition and cognitive apprenticeship through their description of legitimate peripheral participation (LPP). According to Lave and Wenger, “A person’s intentions to learn are engaged, and the meaning of learning is configured through the process of becoming a full participant in a sociocultural practice” (1991). This so-called peripheral participation is critical for students to develop in a field. Novices gain mastery by engagement, interaction, and collaboration with experts in the field and others like themselves.

In the project-based lab described in this study, the instructor takes on the role of an expert mentor and uses scaffolding to help students gain expert-like skills and competencies in Organic Chemistry. One goal of the lab is to prepare students to enter research labs upon completion. This project-based lab introduces aspects of a research-like environment, such as problem-solving, ambiguity, and decision-making to students, which help students move towards more expert-like competencies and skills in chemistry. In other words, the instructor models chemistry practice and assists students towards becoming legitimate peripheral participants in the chemistry community. According to LPP theory, newcomers become members of a community of practice by participating in simple and low-risk tasks (like the laboratory) that are necessary for furthering the goals of the community. Through these kinds of peripheral activities, novices can become more familiar with the skills, vocabulary and ways of the community (Lave and Wenger 1991). In this work, we used situated cognition to develop and discuss the outcome space and how students’ experiences in the lab affect their learning and their role as legitimate peripheral participants.

Relationship between Phenomenography and Situated Cognition

In phenomenographic studies, the findings are described using an outcome space. The outcome space shows the various categories of description, the relationships between them and the links between them (Marton 1994). This helps the researcher and others better understand the phenomenon that is being studied (Marton and Booth 1997). In his early work, Marton seemed to indicate a link between phenomenography and constructivist approaches (Marton 1981). Even though Marton seemed to move away from these thoughts later, one author suggests that situated cognition should “in principle, be of considerable interest to phenomenographic researchers, since it suggests that thinking (both in everyday life and in educational situations) is influenced by the immediate situations and cultural contexts in which it occurs (Richardson 1999).” Although there are differences in the two perspectives, both situated cognition and phenomenography recognize that different people may experience things differently, that individuals play a role in generating knowledge, and that prior experiences play in role in the development of meaning (Cope 2006). We believe that using both phenomenography and situated learning will give us a more comprehensive view of students’ experiences and how they approach learning in the chemistry laboratory.