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Optimising learning during practical work

Practical work in science is hugely demanding - not only are students having to manipulate equipment they may not be familiar with, follow multi-step instructions, think about errors, reliability, accuracy, precision AND spotting anomalies, they are also expected to make useful observations and think about the science behind the work they are doing (which is often a fairly abstract concept to begin with). For most students this demand is too high and they focus on the mechanics of the practical work (making sure they have followed the steps to collect data in the time limit) and rarely think about what we, as science teachers, actually want them to be learning.

I have been trying out 3 different methods to reduce the cognitive load (CL) of practicals and help the students focus on the important stuff during this first semester. These ideas have been shared by members of the CogSciSci group - a group of (mostly) science teachers - you can find out more from their blogs on each aspect here;

Integrated instructions - David Patterson - Reducing CL by having written instructions and diagrams integrated into a series of small steps together, rather than a diagram followed by a step-by-step set of instructions thus reducing split-attention effect. https://eic.rsc.org/feature/improving-practical-work-with-integrated-instructions/3009798.article

Slow Practicals - Adam Boxer - Rather than demonstrate a whole practical at once then ask the students to complete it, the practical is split into smaller steps, each is demonstrated and explained/discussed then students go and carry out that part and come back to the demonstration desk. CL is reduced as information is in small chunks. https://achemicalorthodoxy.wordpress.com/2018/12/06/the-slow-practical/

Graphical organisers - James Bullous - Students are given an outline of the experiment with integrated questions focusing on what was done, why it was done and what observations were made. It gives students space to think carefully about what they are doing and why and allows you to plan the questions in advance to make sure students think about the key things they are learning. https://medium.com/@jamesbullous/reducing-cognitive-overload-with-graphical-organisers-256382ccc69d

All three of these techniques have had a big impact, not only on my sanity (practical lessons are now much calmer, less chaotic and spent having better discussions with students and giving support to those who really need it rather than repeating the same instruction/answering the same problem/question a million times) but also on the students' learning. Students are able to explain what they are doing and why and are producing better evaluations of the data. One of my S2 students yesterday commented "this is good, we've never thought about why we do things in practicals in this much depth before" . I was worried that the second 2 ideas would make practical work take even longer, but have found that the extra time spent on instruction is gained back as they complete the practical tasks with less fuss and needing far less help.

Below are some photos of the work produced in my first attempt at using the Graphical organisers with my S2 group last week. I asked students to work in pairs to fill them in AFTER the practical in this case. The quality of discussion after allowing them to work on these was far above the usual standard. Things I would consider when using them again in the future: Giving them the sheets DURING the practical work and getting them to fill them in as they work so they can make observations on it too, larger arrows (or block arrows) so they have space for observations, A3 sheets rather than A4 - students couldn't fit everything they wanted to write in the boxes, maybe changing the 'instruction' box in the top right for a Key Word / new equipment / new technique box. Photocopying/photographing and printing the sheets after they have been completed so that both students have the info in their books to refer back to for later practicals, or when designing their own.

If anyone wants to come and observe me using these techniques just ask and I'll let you know when I will be doing practical work!

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