Redes Modalidad 1.pdf - RUA - Universidad de Alicante

ANEXO I
Póster presentado por la presente Red Docente en el congreso “Euroanalysis XIII”
celebrado en Salamanca en Septiembre de 2004.
Implementation of the European Credit Transfer
System in Analytical Chemistry experimental
subjects
Luis Gras, Guillermo Grindlay, Alfonso Jiménez, Salvador Maestre, Juan Mora, Soledad Prats, José L. Todolí
Department of Analytical Chemistry, Nutrition and Food Sciences, University of Alicante, P.O. Box 99,
03080 Alicante, Spain
Currently, there are two experimental subjects in the Spanish Curriculum of the Chemistry Degree related with Analytical Chemistry: (i) Introduction to
Chemical Experimentation and to Analytical Instrumentation, first year; and, (ii) Experimentation in Analytical Chemistry, fourth year.
The present investigation has been focused on the study of the suitability of the teaching methodology employed in both subjects to the European Credit
Transfer System (ECTS).
An important point of the learning process is the vocation of the students. In the case of the first subject, we have found a direct correlation between it
and the success yield of the students (see Figure 1). Each point in Figure 1 corresponds to a season (from 1995/96 to 2003/2004). It can be observed that the
vocation clearly affects to the percentage of students that succeeded the subject (i). The result found for season 1995/96 could be attributed to the teaching
methodology used during this season.
As regards the second subject, different teaching methodologies have been applied (Figure 2). The current method is based on three principal activities:
(a) Bibliographic search. This work is carried out by the students in an independent fashion and
the professor simply gives some guidelines in order the students to find the sought information;
(b) Practical work in the laboratory. In this case, the students have a script that indicates the
most salient points of the experiment to carry out; and,
(c) Elaboration of reports in which the students summarize the results together with brief
discussions about the findings.
In order to evaluate the second subject several opinion pools (qualitative and quantitative) have been distributed to the students considering the three main points
of this subject. The goal of this part of the study is to know whether the students appreciate the objectives of the present methodology (marked in red) or not.
75%
50%
Explanation Experiment 1
Explanation Experiment 2
Explanation Experiment 3
Explanation Experiment 4
14%
1 hour an
explanation
25%
36%
3-6 hours an
experiment
Laboratory
Notebook
Figure 5. Yield reached as regards the bibliographic search.
Number of answers: 14
Positive comments
The information is reached in an autonomous way
Very useful information is found
Better understanding of the sources of information
Information is shared and exchanged among the students
New applications of the experiments to the real life are found
Negative comments
Sometimes more information than that found is required by the
students.
Exam
79%
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
29%
Problems with
instrumentation
50%
21%
Lack of available
material
21%
Explanation
2 hours
Lack of information in
the sript
Lack of time
Bibliographic
search
Experiment 1
Experiment 2
Experiment 3
Experiment 4
3-6 hours an
experiment
Figure 2. Differences between the method initially employed and the one currently used in “Experimentation in Analytical Chemistry”
% students that succeeded
subject (i)
93%
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
50%
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Figure 1
season 1995/96
(old methodology)
50 60 70 80 90
What points must
be introduced?
% students actually willing to study chemistry
7%
Lack of computers A lot of work to do Lack of time
in the lab.
Figure 8. Difficulties found by the students in the
Preparation of the report. Number of answers: 14
7%
7%
Reports Exam
Bibliographic search Practical work in the laboratory Report of results
Number of answers
Number of answers
Number of answers
Number of answers
Number of answers
Number of answers
Number of answers
20
15
10
5
0
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
Few books Lack of
additional
titles
1 2 3 4 5
Difficulty degree
1 2 3 4 5
Difficulty degree
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
1 2 3 4 5
Difficulty degree
Books are
written in
english
Difficulties
No difficulties
Books are too Lack of time
general
Figure 3. Difficulties found by the students in the
bibliographic search. Number of answers: 14
Search in the laboratory
Number of answers: 45
Search in the library
Number of answers: 42
Search in Internet
Number of answers: 33
Figure 4. Difficulty degree found by the students in the
three aspects of bibliographic search. 1: No difficult; 5:
Very difficult.
Good
Bad
No answer
Number of answers
Difficulties
No difficulties
Figure 6. Difficulties found by the students in the
development of experiments. Number of answers: 13
Good
Bad
No answer
Figure 7. Yield reached as regards the practical work in the
Laboratory. Number of answers: 10
Positive comments
Cooperative work in group is promoted.
Students learn how to work in the laboratory in an
autonomous way.
New laboratory skills are acquired.
Negative comments
Sometimes the students do not know what they have
done.
There is a lack of time and the experiments are
carried out too fast.
Further orientation is required from the professor.
Conclusions
Bibliographic
search
Bibliographic
search
Bibliographic
search
Vocational students will warranty the success of the ETCS.
Teaching methods might be based on autonomous and
cooperative work.
With teaching method proposed, the students found important
difficulties, although they finally accomplished the learning
objectives.
7%
43%
86%
Difficulties
No difficulties
Good
Bad
No answer
Figure 9. Yield reached as regards the preparation of the
report. Number of answers: 13
Positive comments
Is the most important part of the subject
New concepts are learned
The cooperative work is favored
Negative comments
The reports must be better revised by the professor
Additional time is required to prepare them correctly
Positive
Negative
No answer
Despite its difficulties, the teaching method presented is
Figure 10. Final assessment of the students as regards
suitable for its use in the forthcoming ECTS.
the teaching method followed for the present subject
Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to the Instituto de Ciencias de la Educación (ICE) of the University of Alicante for the financial support of the
present study
72
Number of answers