In the Classroom

JChemEd.chem.wisc.edu • Vol. 75 No. 6 June 1998 • Journal of Chemical Education 741

For the last decade strong currents within the educationand cognitive sciences communities have pushed forward theperspective that greater student engagement in the learningprocess will yield more benefits to student learning thanchanging the formal curricular structure.

“…research findings suggest that curricular planning ef-forts will reap much greater payoffs in terms of studentoutcomes if we focus less on formal structure and con-tent and put much more emphasis on pedagogy and otherfeatures of the delivery system.”

Alexander W. AstinWhat Matters in College: Four Critical Years Revisited

These and other calls for constructivist approaches to learn-ing, increased use of peer instruction to help students achieveauthentic learning, new applications of technology to broadenthe student experience and focus attention on solving prob-lems and interpreting data, and implementation of guidedinquiry approaches require a change in the traditional rolesof students and instructors. But how do we create the toolsand data that will facilitate a paradigm shift from faculty-centered teaching to student-centered learning?

The New Traditions Consortium comprises facultyfrom two-year colleges, liberal arts colleges, comprehensiveuniversities, and research universities who are united by thecommon goal of effecting paradigm shifts in the chemistrylearning experience. The primary sites of New Traditions ac-tivity have been Madison Area Technical College, College ofthe Holy Cross, Franklin and Marshall College, San Jose StateUniversity, University of Illinois–Urbana-Champaign, andUniversity of Wisconsin–Madison. Individuals from a num-ber of other institutions have contributed. Our approach hasbeen to identify mechanisms of pedagogical/instructionalchange, implement them at different types of institutions,and evaluate their effects on student learning.

Mechanisms for Change

In the planning stages of the New Traditions project, itwas pointed out that curricular reform did not require thede novo creation of new learning strategies because a “cottageindustry” of individuals were already experimenting with avariety of new pedagogical approaches. What was needed wasa method for collecting, implementing, and evaluating theseinnovations. Our program uses an “adapt-evaluate-adapt”process in a variety of courses and provides tools and mecha-nisms for others to do the same. By this process we are be-coming able to provide faculty with field-tested informationabout mechanisms available for effecting changes in theirteaching, how to implement these mechanisms, the changesthey might expect to see in student learning and attitudes, andhow they can evaluate the effectiveness of the changes in theirown classroom. The mechanisms for change outlined belowprovide a range of perturbations on traditional lecture-ori-ented teaching from easily adapted techniques to completeimplementation of a guided-inquiry philosophy.

Interactive Lecture Tools: ConcepTests

ConcepTests have been widely publicized by Harvardphysicist Eric Mazur, who recognized that students who couldanswer algorithmic questions often were unable to answersimple conceptual questions. Mazur established a library ofConcepTest questions in the physics community. With thesupport of both the New Traditions and the ChemLinks cur-ricular reform projects, a similar library of chemical ConcepTestquestions has been created and is available on the World WideWeb (http://www.chem.wisc.edu/~concept).

It is interesting that although there is not widespreadagreement among practitioners about what constitutes aConcepTest, there is unanimous agreement that ConcepTestsare valuable because they provide an easily adapted mecha-

The New Traditions Consortium:Shifting from a Faculty-Centered Paradigmto a Student-Centered Paradigm

Clark R. Landis and G. Earl Peace, Jr.Department of Chemistry, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, WI 53706

Maureen A. Scharberg and Steve BranzDepartment of Chemistry, San Jose State University, San Jose, CA 95292-0101

James N. SpencerDepartment of Chemistry, Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster, PA 17604

Robert W. RicciDepartment of Chemistry, College of the Holy Cross, Worchester, MA 01610

Susan Arena ZumdahlDepartment of Chemistry, University of Illinois–Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801

David ShawMadison Area Technical College, Madison, WI 53705

NSF HighlightsProjects Supported by the NSF Division of Undergraduate Education

edited bySusan H. Hixson

National Science FoundationArlington, VA 2230

Curtis T. Sears, Jr.Georgia State University

Atlanta, GA 30303

In the Classroom

742 Journal of Chemical Education • Vol. 75 No. 6 June 1998 • JChemEd.chem.wisc.edu

nism for making lectures interactive. Typically, a question isposed and students are asked to think about and then voteon a few possible answers that have been provided. If the re-sponses are split or generally incorrect, the instructor asksthe students to try to convince their neighbors which answeris correct. Another vote is taken and the instructor may aska student who has voted for the correct answer to explainwhy that choice is best. Thus, ConcepTests provide studentswith a chance to apply recently developed knowledge, to getimmediate feedback on their understanding of a concept, andto engage in knowledge construction through peer instruc-tion. The instructor is provided with immediate assessmentof student understanding and an easily incorporatedmechanism for actively involving students in the learningprocess. The New Traditions group recently has completeda videotape on the use and impact of ConcepTests as aninteractive lecture tool. It will be distributed through sev-eral sources.

Team Problem Solving: Challenge ProblemsChallenge problems are designed to encourage, or even

require, that students work in groups. Challenge problemsare often characterized by multiple-part construction and theapplication of multiple chemistry concepts to complex issues.For example, a challenge question concerning C60, C70, andgraphite interconversions requires that students integrate theconcepts of thermochemistry, structure, bond strain, phasediagrams, mass measurement, NMR, and kinetics to explainobservations about distributions of these carbon allotropesunder different conditions. Such problems foster group learn-ing because it is common for some students in a group tohave a stronger mastery of, say, thermodynamics and for otherstudents to have a stronger mastery of, perhaps, spectroscopy.Students construct a deeper understanding of material becausethey are actively involved in the construction and becausethey are communicating in the language of their peers.

Challenge problems are easily incorporated into tradi-tional class structures and hence provide an easy entry intostudent-centered teaching. That entry can become a startingpoint for more intensive use of the technique in structuredsettings such as the workshop approaches developed withinthe Workshop Chemistry curriculum reform project andlectureless courses (see below). The New Traditions projectis in the process of creating libraries of Challenge problemsand a videotape on their construction and application. Thelibraries will cover general and organic chemistry. Challengeproblems have been or will be published as part of a numberof commercial packages: The Chemical World, Saunders;Chemistry: A Guided Inquiry, Wiley; and Chemistry, 4th ed.,Chemical Principles, 3rd ed., and Active Learning Guide, allfrom Houghton-Mifflin.

Inquiry-Based/Open-Ended LaboratoriesInquiry-based laboratories illustrate the scientific method

by including in each laboratory data gathering, data analy-sis, hypothesis formation, and hypothesis testing. Inquiry-based laboratories usually involve students working in groupswhere each student or pair of students has an assigned roleand defined tasks to perform. Open-ended laboratories pro-mote exploration and the application of chemical conceptsand laboratory procedures in a way that reflects what scien-tists actually do. In many cases there are smooth transitions

from typical laboratory activities to typical classroom activi-ties and vice versa, especially when appropriate facilities areavailable.

Inquiry-based open-ended laboratories provide a goodexample of taking innovations developed at small schools, inthis case Holy Cross College and Franklin and Marshall Col-leges, and testing their adaptation to very different settings—the University of Wisconsin–Madison, San Jose State Uni-versity, and Madison Area Technical College. Significantly,we found that in most cases it was not necessary to adoptthe exact experiments used at Holy Cross. Rather, the changesneeded were in the way students were asked to interact with theexperiments that had been used traditionally. Thus, incremen-tal change rather than sweeping reform is possible becausemajor laboratory programs can be converted to the philosophyof inquiry-based laboratories without undue expense. However,adapting existing experiments to an inquiry-based philosophydoes require an up-front investment of time and changes inthe training of laboratory instructors. Inquiry-based andopen-ended laboratories have been developed and are in use atHoly Cross, Franklin and Marshall, Madison Area TechnicalCollege, University of Wisconsin–Madison, and NiagaraUniversity that span general chemistry, organic chemistry, andphysical chemistry. The experiments developed at the Univer-sity of Wisconsin have been published in a laboratory manual(Joe L. March and David Shaw, Discovery and Analysis in theLaboratory, Harcourt Brace, Orlando, 1997) and some of theexperiments developed at Holy Cross have been publishedas laboratory separates in the Primis system by McGraw-Hill.“How-to” documents on conversion of existing laboratoryexperiments to the inquiry-based philosophy will be writtenin the spring and summer of 1998.

Training for Change: TA TrainingIn institutions that use teaching assistants, student active

learning strategies may be undermined if the TA’s are notfamiliar with the philosophy and strategies of student activelearning. Indeed, evaluations of student-active courses at theUniversity of Wisconsin–Madison found that training whichdid not bring the TAs up to speed with student active learningphilosophies weakened the overall effectiveness of studentactive learning mechanisms. Thus, several institutions within theNew Traditions consortium have revamped their TA trainingmethods to better accommodate these new learning strategies.

At San Jose State University a special course for TAshas been developed to introduce guided-inquiry skills, peerlearning, and cooperative learning techniques. At the Uni-versity of Illinois–Urbana-Champaign, the Merit programfor minority students has led to the development of newTA training materials, which are included in the ActiveLearning Guide by Houghton-Mifflin. At the Universityof Wisconsin–Madison a new TA training program has beenimplemented in which expected behaviors of teachers aremodeled in the program itself. Weeklong training sessions arehighly interactive, cooperative learning strategies are em-ployed, and TAs are encouraged to discover solutions to manyof the problems they will face. The UW TA Teaching Work-shop manual is modeled after the ChemActivities worksheetsused in lectureless courses at Franklin and Marshall.

Thematic Teaching Topic-Oriented ApproachAnother mechanism for actively engaging students in the

In the Classroom

JChemEd.chem.wisc.edu • Vol. 75 No. 6 June 1998 • Journal of Chemical Education 743

learning process focuses on connecting chemical principleswith what students already know. Many students are aware,for example, that carbon fibers and diamond films andfullerenes are emerging technologies. That all of these tech-nologies have their basis in a single element, carbon, is lesswell known. The context of existing knowledge provides afirm base for the construction of chemical concepts; for theexamples of diamonds, graphite, and buckyballs the conceptsof elements, atoms, extended solids, molecules, solid-statestructure, etc. are needed to understand more deeply thesefamiliar and emerging technologies. The New Traditionsproject has developed some new modular materials forBuckyballs, Diamond, and Graphite and HIV ProteaseInhibitors: An Introduction to Carbonyl Chemistry. Thesematerials will be formatted for inclusion in the modules beingdeveloped by the ChemLinks and Modular Chemistry Consor-tia, which also are funded by NSF Curricular Reform Initiative.

Information Technology/Computer ToolsComputers provide new tools for students to explore

chemistry, learn techniques, and interact with data. We haveaddressed three main areas of computer implementation: theuse of multimedia for supplementary instruction, interactivetexts in which students can experiment with mathematicalapplications to chemical problems as they read, and laboratory-related computing.

The New Traditions project has embarked on a majorprogram to develop a multimedia encyclopedia of laboratorytechniques and procedures. This project was the result of rec-ommendations by teaching assistants who found that theirrole as a guide in new inquiry-based laboratories was com-promised by time spent addressing routine issues of equip-ment use and laboratory procedures. The UW Chem Pageshave resulted. Approximately 35 modules cover most tech-niques used in general chemistry; multimedia quizzes are in-cluded. These libraries have been submitted to JCE Softwarefor publication.

Multimedia is being used to present problems that supportintegration of concepts by students. In a typical problem, astudent will view video clips of chemical reactions or otherphenomena and then interact with the problem through aseries of carefully paced questions. Students may answer thesequestions individually or after discussion with a group. Eachproblem integrates several concepts to help students applywhat they are learning to realistic situations. Twenty-fourproblems have been developed so far.

Interactive texts are new student-active tools that have beenused extensively in physical chemistry. With interactive textsdeveloped within the Mathcad program, it is possible forstudents to read a document in which both text and mathemati-cal equations are displayed, as in a traditional text. However,equations, variables, and parameters can be changed, withthe results of the new computations being displayed imme-diately. These interactive texts invite student exploration andtake the form of fully developed instructional units thatpresent concepts interactively. A Web site of more than 35interactive texts has been established by Theresa Zielinski(http://www.monmouth.edu/~tzielins/mathcad/index.htm). On-going work will lead to a collection of more than 75 docu-ments that cover most of the major conceptual areas in physi-cal chemistry, and the Web site will become a regular featurein JCE Online+.

Lectureless Courses and Laboratory-Driven CurriculaAs one moves along the continuum of instructional tech-

niques, lectureless courses and lab-driven curricula based onthe principles of guided inquiry represent the most completeadoption of the student-centered learning philosophy. TheNew Traditions project has supported the development oflectureless approaches at Franklin and Marshall College andlaboratory-driven curriculum at College of the Holy Cross.These two programs have experienced significant cross-fertilization; for example, the Holy Cross guided-inquiry ex-periments are used at Franklin and Marshall. These coursesare in place and cover general chemistry through physicalchemistry.

The fundamental idea of these approaches is that studentsmust wrestle with the subject matter and construct their ownunderstanding. “Classroom” mechanisms for achieving thistype of learning include the use of guided-inquiry worksheetsand laboratories, an emphasis on cooperative learning, andelimination of lecture with the instructor adopting the roleof a learning facilitator. In laboratory-driven curriculum, theclassroom and laboratory aspects of chemistry are seamlesslyinterwoven in both content and time. Supporting materialsfor the implementation of fully guided-inquiry-based coursesthat cover general through physical chemistry soon will becomplete and available for distribution.

Blended CoursesAt San Jose State University and the College of the Holy

Cross, the New Traditions project is supporting the develop-ment of a new course sequence based on a spiral curriculum.The course sequence discards the notion that general chemis-try and organic chemistry are pedagogically distinct and re-places the normal two-year sequence with a four-semesterblended course sequence. Covering both general and organicchemistry topics, the new two-year sequence establishes keyconcepts quickly and then revisits these concepts periodicallyand in different contexts. The result of this spiral curriculumis that students are exposed to chemistry in a highly inter-connected way: chemical principles are presented repetitively,with increasing sophistication and in the context of differenttraditional areas. Thus barriers between general and organicchemistry are torn down as students see that the same prin-ciples apply to both areas. In keeping with the student activephilosophy of the New Traditions project, this experimentalcurriculum makes extensive use of active- and cooperative-learning techniques in both classroom and laboratory.

Learning Communities/Course ClustersStudent active learning flourishes when similar learning

experiences are shared among a group of familiar cohorts.Learning communities—which consist of a medium-sizedgroup of students who are coenrolled in the same section orsections of large classes and study together, interact socially,and may live in the same campus housing—provide thestructure for bringing learners together. The New Traditionsmodel also includes course clustering, in which students arecoenrolled in the same sections for two or more large lecturecourses. Course clustering provides natural opportunities forcross-disciplinary integration of content and pedagogy. So far,implementations of learning communities and course clus-ters within the New Traditions project have focused on largeUniversities (University of Illinois–Urbana-Champaign and

In the Classroom

744 Journal of Chemical Education • Vol. 75 No. 6 June 1998 • JChemEd.chem.wisc.edu

the University of Wisconsin–Madison). They have taken avariety of forms, with communities focusing on women insciences, minorities, engineering majors, preservice teachers,and freshman coenrolled in chemistry, calculus, and psychol-ogy. To date the project has had a cumulative enrollment of400 student-semesters.

Evaluation

At its heart, the New Traditions project aims to provideinstructors with new instructional degrees of freedom basedon an active-learner model and documented data describingwhat changes might be expected as a result of incorporatingactive-learning techniques. Evaluation of the New Traditionsproject has spanned a variety of student outcomes includingperformance-based, affective, and retention outcomes. Inmany cases the evaluation model has gone deeper to investigatethe learning process itself—uncovering what is going on inthe classroom, laboratory, and outside of class that isfacilitating or hindering learning.

Important gains in student learning, such as the abilityto effectively communicate how chemical principles may beapplied to a real world problem, are not measured well bystandardized multiple-choice exams. Therefore, the NewTraditions project evaluation has required the creation of newevaluation techniques. For example, a comparative evaluationof two classes at the University of Wisconsin–Madison em-ployed faculty assessors who interviewed eight students, fourfrom each class, individually for about 30 minutes each. Thesestudents were force-ranked and then the results of all asses-sors were compared. In this instance, the assessors perceivedsignificant differences in the students who had taken the classwith an active learning emphasis and, with statistical signifi-cance, ranked their performance more favorably. The New Tra-ditions project is supporting the development of a database,Field-Tested Learning Assessment Guide (FLAG), of assess-ment tools. This will result in the production of a broad-basedtoolkit of assessment resources for science, math, and engi-neering instructors and evaluators. The New Traditions projecthas worked closely with the ACS Exams Institute to produceblended conceptual/traditional exams, the “First- Term andSecond-Term General Chemistry Special Examinations”.

What can one expect to gain from incorporating activelearning strategies in the classroom? Although the evaluationof the New Traditions model courses is incomplete, somegeneral effects of active-learning strategies are becoming clear.Attendance at class increases when students are actively in-volved in constructing knowledge. Perhaps relatedly, studentsare less likely to withdraw or fail when the course actively in-volves them in the learning process: it is not uncommon tosee student attrition rates change by 50% or more as a resultof active learning strategies. Active learning will not necessar-ily change students’ scores on standardized exams. However,oral assessments of performance consistently yield higherrankings for students who have had a strong active learningexperience. Learning communities effectively shrink the stu-dents’ perception of the size of the University and supportimproved performance.

Dissemination and Future Plans

A wide variety of instructional materials, instructor train-ing aids, evaluation designs and reports, journal articles, and

workshop activities are currently in production and will bethe focus of our future work. The Internet is an effectivedissemination vehicle. Current offerings on the WWW in-clude ChemPages laboratory materials, ConcepTests da-tabase (jointly maintained with the ChemLinks consor-tium), Mathcad Interactive texts database, and the recentlyinitiated FLAG Web site of assessment materials. Our planis for the ChemPages and Mathcad documents to eventu-ally become available through the Journal of Chemical Edu-cation Software.

Instructional materials that have been, or soon will be,published include the Holy Cross Inquiry-Based LaboratoryExperiments for general and organic chemistry (availablethrough the McGraw-Hill Primis system); new materials forphysical chemistry are ready for publication. The Franklin andMarshall ChemActivities worksheets and textbooks for gen-eral chemistry are available from Wiley & Sons; new materialsfor physical and organic chemistry will be available in the nexttwo years. The New Traditions adaptation of laboratories to aguided-inquiry philosophy have been published throughHarcourt-Brace. ConcepTests and Challenge Problems havebeen incorporated into the second edition of The ChemicalWorld text and study guide, published by Saunders. Booksfrom Houghton-Mifflin that incorporate Challenge Problemsinclude Chemistry, 4th edition, and Chemical Principles, 3rdedition. Topic-oriented modules on Buckyballs, Diamond, andGraphite and HIV Protease Inhibitors will be submitted for pub-lication through the ChemLinks and MC2 consortia.

A series of How-To aids for instructors are under devel-opment. We have recently completed a 30-minute videotapeon the impact of ConcepTests, which will be accompaniedby a short booklet on the construction and implementationof ConcepTests. These materials will be distributed by PrenticeHall at little or no cost. Similar How-To documents areplanned for creating and using inquiry-based labs, challengeproblems, and new assessment techniques. For institutions thatuse teaching assistants, more active learning-based courses re-quire different methods of TA training, as the TAs themselvesmay never have experienced active learning methods. An Ac-tive Learning Guide from the University of Illinois–Urbana-Champaign will include material on training others to useactive learning in the classroom and will be published byHoughton-Mifflin.

We have initiated a series of workshops on incorporat-ing the New Traditions mechanisms for change into chemis-try courses. Three workshops aimed at two-year college fac-ulty have been given. We have pioneered two very successfulmodel workshops directed at new tenure-track faculty. Inthese workshops a new faculty member is paired with atleast one experienced faculty member from the same in-stitution. Other workshops are now being planned for1998 and 1999.

For more information about the New Traditions Project,contact our Web site: http://newtraditions.chem.wisc.edu/.

Acknowledgment

This work is partially supported by the National ScienceFoundation, Division of Undergraduate Education, SystemicChanges in the Undergraduate Chemistry Curriculuminitiative under award DUE-9455928; co-PIs John W. Mooreand Clark Landis.