Design, implementation, and evaluation of two laboratory course constructivist learning environments

This study is concerned with the design, implementation, and evaluation of two student-centered, constructivist undergraduate laboratory courses: the intensive general chemistry laboratory course, a first-year course, and the physical chemistry laboratory course, a fourth-year course for chemistry majors.; The courses' activities were divided into training and educating blocks according to their cognitive and epistemological content; i.e., the training block activities consisted of structured experiments based on laboratory manuals, which developed specific curricular skills; the educating block consisted of problem-based-learning contextual episodic experiences in the form of case studies, integrative, and independent projects aimed at broadening the students' perspectives and metacognitive abilities.; The main goal of the proposed curricular change was to motivate the first-year students to major in chemistry, and once motivated to sustain the interest of declared majors through the undergraduate experience into the fourth year to build stronger graduate programs in chemistry.; The effectiveness of the courses in promoting students' intellectual growth, transfer of domain specific knowledge in the sense of procedural transfer i.e., the application of prior knowledge to new learning situations, and active learning of professional or transferable skills that would improve efficiency and effectiveness in their professional preparation was evaluated quantitatively by analyzing the students' group- and individual-reports at the beginning and end of the courses and qualitatively by analyzing the students' responses to open-ended questionnaires at the beginning and end of the courses.; The students performed outstandingly as evidenced by the high grades obtained in the graded activities, and by the appreciation of external evaluators who attended the students' public presentations. Analysis of the students' responses to the open-ended questionnaires using indigenous concepts and case study approaches showed intellectual growth in the sense of Perry's theory, gain of domain specific knowledge, and acquisition of transferable skills.; Since the implementation of the pilot phase of the prototypical courses in the fall of 2002 to date, seventy three percent of the declared chemistry majors are either pursuing careers in chemistry or have been admitted to chemistry programs nationwide.