Journal of Academic Development and Education JADE Issue 9 | Page 38

38 | JADE
HIGHLIGHT #4 | 39
ACTIVE LEARNING TECHNIQUES
TO BUILD PROBLEM SOLVING SKILLS IN CHEMISTRY STUDENTS
NATALIE BROWN, CHLOE HOWE, GRAEME R. JONES, & TESS R. PHILLIPS
The TBL and Purple Pens Effect
The students are divided into two distinct cohorts, Science and
Health, who then move onto different faculties at the end of the
foundation year. These cohorts are taught together in mixed
TBL sessions in class sizes of between 50 and 65 students. Each
TBL session was staffed with an instructor and a demonstrator
compared to the non-TBL sessions in 2014–15 which were staffed by
an instructor and three demonstrators. In total there were ten TBL
sessions across the 12-week semester.
In the first year of TBL the exam results showed a significant increase
for both cohorts with average performance up by 7% for the Science
cohort and 5% for the Health, see Table 1.
Year
2014–15
Cohort Size
TBL
Purple Pens Class test Exam
Science 60 - - 58 48
Health 31 - - 73 56
2015–16 Science 125 YES - 59 55
Health 29 YES - 62 61
2016–17 Science 85 YES YES 55 61
Health 35 YES YES 63 67
Table 1: Effect of TBL and purple pens on Class Test and Exam performance
In 2016–17 we decided to add in more intervention at the class
test stage. In previous years it had been marked and formative
feedback given alongside a summative mark by the instructor and
then returned to the students. However we were concerned that
many students did not engage with the feedback and therefore we
adopted a feedback technique termed ‘Purple Pens’ (McGarvey and
Hancock, 2017). Following the class test the instructors review the
class test scripts and in a timetabled session these are returned to
the students who are given a purple pen. The instructor then displays
marked answers to the questions and the students correct their
own script and mark it in purple and thus actually engage with the
feedback and see where the marks were awarded. The scripts are
then collected in again and the marking moderated by the instructor,
marks recorded and the work returned.
The average exam performance of the students continued to
increase with an additional 6% increase for both the Science and
Health cohorts. In this 2016–17 cohort 88% of students rated the TBL
sessions good or excellent and 92% rated the Purple Pens sessions
good or excellent.
We were slightly disappointed to see no increase in class test
performance on the introduction of the TBL sessions in 2015–16, with
a similar performance maintained in 2016–17. However, this can be
explained by changes to the format of the class test to introduce
some unseen questions, which was also implemented in 2015–16
whereas in 2014–15 all the questions were seen prior to the test.
It should also be noted that in 2016–17 there was a change in
personnel because of a maternity leave, one of the teaching team
of three was replaced by a teaching fellow new to TBL. Within one
month this teaching fellow was successfully running TBL sessions
prepared the previous year.
Summary
The combined TBL and purple pens improvement in exam marks has
been 13% for Science cohort and 11% for Health. We believe these two
simple active learning strategies have had a significant impact on
student performance and have been simple to introduce and once
the modest preparation has been undertaken make a very efficient
and effective way to teach.
Emerging from this we have developed a rational problem solving
pathway: instructor demonstration, TBL problem solving, formative
individual attempt at problem solving with purple pens feedback and
finally summative assessment in an exam. This pathway can be easily
implemented by other subjects that have a focus on problem solving
in their assessment, indeed our TBL methodology has already been
adopted by Keele colleagues in Economics, Forensic Science and
Chemistry, and Chemists in the UK and Europe.
References
Hancock, L. M., Howe C., Plana, D., Jones, G.R. and Phillips, T. R. (2017)
Scratching the Surface of Team-Based Learning. Education in Chemistry, 5,
22-25.
Jones, G. R. and Hancock L. M. (2015) Team-Based Learning: A Scratch
Approach to Large Group Problem Classes. Journal of Academic Development
and Education, 4, 98-103.
McGarvey, D. J. and Hancock, L. M. (2017) PURPLE PENS: Enhancing
Assessment Literacy and Student Engagement with Feedback [Online] https://
rscposter.tumblr.com/tagged/RSCEdu [accessed 05/04/2017]
Sweet, M. (2009) What is TBL? [Online] http://www.teambasedlearning.org/#
[Accessed 21.30 31-3-16].