2020 Transformative Learning Conference

An introduction to the roots of TL learning theory and contemporary conceptualizations of TL

Due to the increasing costs of published laboratory manuals, the UCO Chemistry Department began writing new laboratory experiments for general chemistry and over time produced a copyright-free manual for department use.  This has proven advantageous and transformative in a number of ways for the students and the faculty. For the students, the manual is very inexpensive. Another advantage of a living lab manual is that instructors meet every semester to discuss what worked and what did not work for the students.  Instructors receive feedback from the students, involving them in the process, and making changes each semester to better help the students understand the concepts.  This includes adjusting the experiments, procedures, adding more introductory material, video links, or worked example problems. For the faculty, the changes, even minor, made each semester prevent copying of materials from previous semesters. Major changes include leaving out a section of the originally-written experiment and making the student write the procedure and/or data tables. This flexibility in the manual has enabled the faculty to increase the amount of writing required in the class, which is good training for the students when they enter the workforce. Becoming a good science writer is a transferable skill that is beneficial and transformative for students.  Making an editable, evolving lab manual for general chemistry is a transformative learning project because of the flexibility it provides to students and faculty to include different activities and focus on different skills each semester.