The place of argumentation in undergraduate chemistry teaching

Abstract

(The place of argumentation in undergraduate chemistry teaching) The purpose of this paper is to investigate to what extent argumentation activities are used in undergraduate chemistry teaching. Thirty five undergraduate chemistry lessons in a chemistry university course were systematically observed to conduct a pilot study. An observation schedule was used to record student’s activities and students-professor interactions. The findings indicated that in the majority of the classes it was the professor who did the talking and structured the arguments. The laboratory classes were organized in such a way that the students focused mainly on procedural aspects of the practical work. In order to understand the lack of argumentation activities in university chemistry classroom, the ten professors who taught the observed lessons were interviewed. The interviews indicated that there is a general lack of pedagogical expertise among professors in organizing activities in which students are given a voice.