Резюме. In the Department of Chemistry, University of Varna, Bulgaria, students of the English language course are thought for 5 years. There was a need for adaptation of chemistry curriculum to the needs and requirements of the new students. Recognizing that a graduate in chemistry has knowledge that is necessary for understanding of chemical principles applied in further study subjects, a context- based approach is used in chemistry practice and lectures. Increasing the students’ interest to chemistry as a preclinical discipline aims to motivate their curiosity and help them learn. Based on the Bloom’s taxonomy we suggest the students 6 types of tasks for the laboratory and seminar works. We use the tasks for control as well as for assessment. Using a well-known guideline, students perform the seminar and practical work and get used to follow instructions, an approach often used in the physicians’ practice. The topic “Amino acids” is proposed as an example how the experimental procedure is compared to a clinical procedure.

Ключови думи: English language course, context-based approaches, tasks for control and assessment, guideline for performing seminar and practical works

45-та Национална конференция на учителите по химия

Габрово, 25-27 октомври 2013 г.

Introduction

Varna Medical University was established as a Higher Medical Institute in 1960. The university diplomas are recognized in all EU countries.

For 5 years the Department of Chemistry1) have been thought students in English language program. The different nation‘s origin, chemistry and language knowledge provided a curriculum adaptation for the needs of the new students.

Chemistry is taught in 60 hours lectures and 45 hours practice and seminars which are divided in two semesters.

Chemistry is now taught in the first year of academic study - winter and summer semesters. Graduate in chemistry has knowledge that is necessary for understanding of chemical principles applied in further study subjects. General and inorganic chemistry provides students with understanding of solution properties, principles and techniques for qualitative, quantitative and instrumental analysis, acids, bases, buffer solutions and basic physic-chemical laws.

Organic chemistry enables students to become familiar with compounds and reactions taking part in metabolism and organic compounds that have importance in toxicology.

Seminars and laboratory practices are complementary to chemistry lectures. The knowledge of general, inorganic and organic chemistry is thoroughly practiced during chemistry seminars. This is accomplished with discussions on different topics, solving problems and naturally performing chemical experiments. Students have to evaluate and comment their results at the end of the class.

Managing students’ interest to chemistry

Motivation drives the process of starting and continuing learning. Relevance refers to activities that give the students satisfaction and meet their needs, including the chance to achieve personal learning goals. In order to capture students’ attention and activate their motivation to learn, teachers must consider the relevance of each topic. Then they can connect science with students’ interests, personal lives, societal issues, cultural backgrounds, and other school subjects (Staver, 2007).

Science is an inspiring process of discovery that helps satisfy the natural curiosity with which we are all born. Unfortunately, traditional instruction that misrepresents science as a body of facts to be memorized can deaden students‘ spirit of inquiry2) .

Fortunately, fostering such understandings needn‘t require reorganizing the entire curriculum. Simple shifts in how content and activities are approached can make a big difference in overcoming student misconceptions and building more accurate views of the process of science. Educational research supports the following strategies for teaching about the scientific endeavor: Make it explicit: Key concepts regarding the nature and process of science should be explicitly and independently emphasized. Engaging in inquiry and studying the history of science are most helpful when the nature-of-science concepts they exemplify are explicitly drawn out in discussion and interactions; Help them reflect: Throughout instruction, students should be encouraged to examine, test, and revise their ideas about what science is and how it works; Give it context, again and again: Key concepts about the nature and process of science should be revisited in multiple contexts throughout the year, allowing students to see how they apply to real-world situations.

Maintaining students’ interest to the preclinical disciplines is important for saving their motivation for learning. Unfortunately well-known questions from high school chemistry “ Why do we learn this? “ and “ What do we need this for?” can still be heard in students’ classes. The lack of systematic knowledge and skills to students in science, which they demonstrate in different situations in practice and life outside of school and the perishable nature of this knowledge, proves that there is a rift between teaching and learning in the form in which they are traditionally implemented. One way to handle this problem is the use of different contexts of science as a starting point for the development of scientific knowledge (Gendjova, 2012). Therefore we should not forget that Science Education is not only of interests to specialists of different didactics, but also to all professors. In many universities before starting their academic work all new assisting professors and teachers should graduate a course of pedagogy (didactics, etc.). Aim of the university professors at medical schools is not only mastering the theoretical foundations of the structure and reactivity of the compounds, but also a developing in the future physician a skill of prompt transfer of the acquired knowledge in appropriate situation. Namely in the second professors in advance must be considered the context of chemical knowledge and offer students assignments in which they themselves will see the relationship of chemistry to their real professional life.

We have the idea to combine and integrate topics from other science’s disciplines in order to give much more attention to the teaching, and hence the medical students’ learning process. Biochemistry, pathology, pharmacology and clinical medicine are just a portion of the list of disciplines which are based on chemistry. Fig. 1 represents the correlation between different preclinical disciplines - Chemistry, Biochemistry and Physiology.

To enhance this situation we have also adapted the chemical curriculum to the specific interests of the students of medicine and dental medicine including use and application of important for medical and dental medical practice substances and techniques (Makedonski et al., 2013a).

The topic “Testing for cations and anions” contains tabled information about importance of ions in human body; students comment hypothetical situations and find out how to handle them. At the end of the class students determine the presence of some ions in biological samples (Fig. 2).

Context-based approaches for control and assessment

Kotzé (2003) cites assessment as an encompassing concept that is associated with concepts like measurement, evaluation, testing, standards and criteria. Context-based assessment models use open, interpretive items that describe scenarios of real life events in which scientific concepts are embedded. The assessment tasks require of students to use scientific knowledge to interpret and explain occurrences in real world situations presented in the questions. The assumption is that if students succeed in providing a scientifically sound answer to a context-based question then they have understood the scientific concepts embedded in the questions (Ahmed & Pollitt, 2007).

Not only is there a call for more inclusive assessment models, but there is also a need to recognise the importance of students’ and teachers’ perceptions about assessment practices and formats. Perceptions about classroom processes of teaching and learning held by teachers and students affect implementation of new reforms in curricula and assessment in significant ways (Aschbacher, 1991). These perceptions influence and maintain students’ motivation in preparing, performing and persevering with tasks they see as important, useful and of value in their learning, development of skills and achievement (Ames & Archer, 1998).

The success of context-based teaching has been observed not only in students’ increased enthusiasm and motivation but also in the delivery of content in chemistry (Belt et al., 2005). Belt et al. (2005) conducted a case study in the United Kingdom in which students were introduced to thermodynamics and kinetics. Students were required to identify fuel sources for a hypothetical newly established city through interpreting and evaluating a variety of physical chemistry data. Students were also expected to develop and use a variety of skills relating to group work, such as communication, organisation, problem-solving and critical thinking. All this work culminated in oral presentations and reports by the students. Students were, in addition, asked to indicate their perceived level of difficulty with regard to the tasks.Participating students appreciated studying Chemistry within an applied context and felt that the approach could lead to the development of their subject knowledge and their perception of its relevance. Some students expressed a perceived increased confidence in approaching problem-solving in the future. A number of students found the calculations in tasks challenging until they realised a familiar method to use in the calculations. Further difficulties reported by students were: working out how to approach the task, knowing where to start with the task, understanding what was asked, as well as deciphering each task to know which bits of information to use (but were fine once that was done).

Context-based assessment in our practice

In this paper we summarize the types of problems we use for assessment during practical exercises and those for tests and final exam. Our research in this area provided information about the possible function of assessment in promoting students’ learning as a direct outcome of engaging in assessment tasks.

This promotion of learning was in addition to the mastery of subject content by students from revision exercises and practice of the skill of answering assessment questions. It is clear that assessment activities could also serve as learning activities during which students could develop new knowledge and skills. 3)

For example control and application of the knowledge during class or for revision are achieved with following task (Fig. 3).

A ceruloplasmin test (which tests the copper level in blood) was ordered for a patient with following signs and symptoms:

– Anemia

– Nausea, abdominal pain

– Jaundice

– Fatigue etc.

In our work with students of English language program, we have prepared different types of tasks, both for the laboratory and seminar work, semester tests (colloquiums) and final exams. This is how we cope with differences in pre-linguistic and chemical knowledge of the students. Tasks can be classified as follows taking into account the new Bloom’s taxonomy4) (Table 1).

There were some limitations in development of assignments for evaluating and creating (Fig. 4) and it took not only time, but also expertise expansion. At last we decided to use this assignment as a project task, which students should prepare for the end of school year.

Our program ensures that all students: (i) obtain hands-on experience with modern scientific instrumentation; (ii) enhance their ability to communicate knowledge inside and outside the classroom; (iii) receive mentorship from faculty with extensive realworld work experience.

Adaptation the didactic structure of the chemistry practice using a guideline

In order to improve clinical practice, the Committee for Practice Guidelines charges groups of European experts with the task of creating recommendations and guidelines for clinical practice. These recommendations and guidelines clarify areas of consensus and disagreement, allowing distribution of the best possible guidance to practicing physicians.

Guidelines aim to present all the relevant evidence on a particular clinical issue in order to help physicians to weigh the benefits and risks of a particular diagnostic or therapeutic procedure. They should be helpful in everyday clinical medical decision-making5.

Getting used to the work with guidelines may be hard if you don’t have an experience with it. Chemistry laboratory work is organized and always follows the rules of a guideline. The steps they have to follow are always the same. Here is an example.

Topic Amino Acids (Makedonski et al., 2013b)

1. Students’ work starts with filling out the Report sheet. Pre-Lab Study questions are answered and discussed.

2. Goals of the practice are discussed first:

3. The theory concerning the topic is discussed, usually students are in previous separated in groups and all the groups present their part of the text.

4. The experimental procedures are explained by the instructor and students get ready for work

5. Following the instructions students perform the experiment. Meanwhile questions concerning the results of the experiment are answered.

The experimental procedure itself is complementary to the procedures physicians have to follow in certain cases. Use of imperative mood is preferred.

Perspective work

The context-based approach for control and assessment of chemical knowledge is applied in 2012/2013 academic year. These results and the results of 2013/2014 academic year about the change of students’ interest and progress will be analyzed in a further study. Development and implementation of context-based approach in all topics related to medical sciences is planned.

NOTES

1. http://www.mu-varna.bg/BG/Structure/Pharmacy/Pages/KatedrapoHimiq.aspx

2. http://undsci.berkeley.edu/teaching/

3. http://etd.uwc.ac.za/usrfiles/modules/etd/docs/etd_gen8Srv25Nme4_9855_1259928262.pdf

4. http://ww2.odu.edu/educ/roverbau/Bloom/blooms_taxonomy.htm

5. http://www.escardio.org/guidelines-surveys/esc-guidelines/about/Pages/presentation.aspx

6. http://www.dableducational.org/pdfs/esh_esc_guideline2003.pdf

REFERENCES

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Makedonski, L, Peycheva, K. & Stancheva, M. (2013b). Laboratory manual for general and organic chemistry, Varna: Steno.

Staver, J.R. (2007). Teaching science. Geneva: Educational Academy of Education.