Abstract:

Chemistry Laboratories are a compulsory part of all General Chemistry courses. The nature of this activity means a drastically reduced teacher to student ratio and a much closer positioning between instructor and learner. This means that it is an ideal environment for continuous assessment and competence evaluation of the students.

In the University Rey Juan Carlos we have developed new teaching and evaluation methodologies for the Chemistry Laboratories in various different chemistry courses and which we describe in this paper.

We have dispensed with the traditional instruction manual and replaced it with problem based learning exercises that need to be resolved in the laboratory. Groups of twelve students (working in pairs) are constantly monitored, guided and challenged by the teacher. The evaluation process is dynamic with clearly marked objectives for student progress. We have also employed our Virtual Campus platform to provide the students with self evaluation tests, reading material and video demonstrations.

This work is included in the project entitled ‘Methodologies and tools for improving the efficiency, transparency and quality of the continuous assessment in the European Higher Education Area” directed by Dr. Sanjiv Prashar and which forms part of the sixth edition of the Innovation in Education Program of the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos.

Keywords:

Innovative Teaching, Continuous Assessment, Competence Evaluation, Chemistry.