Doctoral Dissertations

Abstract

"Freshman science courses are intended to prepare students for the rigor and expectations of subsequent college science. While secondary education aims to prepare students for the college curriculum, many incoming freshman lack the sense of responsibility for their own learning that is essential for success in a college-level course. The freshman general-chemistry laboratory course at Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T) was identified as a bottleneck course with a demand beyond accommodation capacity. To address the bottleneck and develop a sense of learner responsibility, a decision was made to investigate laboratory course delivery strategies. As a result of the investigation into delivery strategies, a blended freshman general-chemistry laboratory course was designed and implemented at Missouri S&T, which increased student access to the bottleneck course and improved learner engagement while meeting American Chemical Society (ACS) guidelines. The implementation of the Missouri S&T project and its continued evolution at other institutions have a great potential to provide insight on the impact of blended teaching on learner success.

This dissertation describes research and design of a blended laboratory course that economically improves capacity while intentionally focusing pedagogy to support learner success, meet industry expectations, and maintain ACS certification. To evaluate success, the project documented and analyzed student performance during the development of the transformation to a blended freshman chemistry laboratory course at Missouri S&T. The findings support the efficacy of the blended teaching model and offer a structure upon which future courses may build"--Abstract, page iii.

Advisor(s)

Woelk, Klaus

Committee Member(s)

Ercal, Nuran
Collier, Harvest L.
Winiarz, Jeffrey G.
Hogan, John Patrick

Department(s)

Chemistry

Degree Name

Ph. D. in Chemistry

Sponsor(s)

Missouri University of Science and Technology. eFellows Program
Missouri University of Science and Technology. Educational Research Grant Program
Missouri Learning Commons
Next Generation Learning Challenges (NGLC)
Missouri University of Science and Technology. Department of Chemistry

Publisher

Missouri University of Science and Technology

Publication Date

Spring 2016

Pagination

x, 175 pages

Note about bibliography

Includes bibliographic references (pages 170-174).

Geographic Coverage

Missouri

Rights

© 2016 Shayna Brianne Burchett, All rights reserved.

Document Type

Dissertation - Open Access

File Type

text

Language

English

Subject Headings

Engineering -- Study and teaching (Higher) -- MissouriTeaching -- MethodologyEducational innovations

Thesis Number

T 10905

Electronic OCLC #

952591095

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Dissertation Location

 
COinS