Abstract:

This research paper examines a way of evaluating the Pedagogical Variation Model (PVM, Rogers 2013) for Learning and Teaching Organic Chemistry in the Natural Sciences, Biology and Chemistry. The methodology of this innovative international collaborative research is survey-based involving the distribution of a specific evaluation questionnaire (Rogers, 2013) regarding the identification of four learning styles to match with four teaching strategies, namely constructivist, self-directed, collaborative, and instructivist, based on a pedagogical leadership paradigm inspired by two concepts of leadership namely:
(i) Transactional (task-giving) and
(ii) Transformational (empowering / motivational) developed by researchers Avolio, Bass and Jung (2000).

The sample population included pre-service teacher undergraduates for the acquisition of professional qualified teacher status in the Natural Sciences, Biology and Chemistry, during the pandemic times. The PVM is constructed with a graphical design known as the Boston Matrix consisting of four quadrants where one such matrix format, regarding learner characteristics, is based on two variable identifiers, namely:
(i) their collaborative capabilities and
(ii) their knowledge construction and practical skills.

A second Boston Matrix Format elucidates pedagogical leadership characteristics of teachers / lecturers, namely:
(i) Transactional (task-giving) and
(ii) Transformational (empowering / motivational).

These two matrices are then ´matched´ quadrant by quadrant, where the evaluation questionnaire elicits from research respondents in the sample population whether the matches between the quadrants for online teaching style and the quadrants for e-learner capabilities are “good”, “bad”, “doesn’t matter” or “don’t know”. The goal of this paper is to evaluate the perceptions about students’ ‘expectations’ and ‘experiences’ in the remote classes of Organic Chemistry subject during the pandemic times from the perspective of the Part A and the Part B of the online Pedagogical Variation Model (PVM, Rogers 2013) questionnaire. The sample population included pre-service teacher undergraduates for the acquisition of professional qualified teacher status in the Natural Sciences, Biology and Chemistry from Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of Rio Grande do Sul (IFRS), Brazil. The PVM (Rogers, 2013), translated into Portuguese and online version, was distributed amongst them. The "Organic Chemistry" group had 19 students, and 9 answered the digital version of PVM. Interestingly, this collaborative research highlights significant outcomes regarding pre-service teacher students’ perceptions of matching online teaching strategies with e-learner preferences depending on their online collaborative and knowledge construction abilities, providing evidence of the opposing idea that one-size fits all; indeed, outcomes of the research reveal quite the opposite.

Keywords:

Online learning and teaching, e-learning, e-moderating, pedagogical leadership, attrition, retention, constructivist, instructivist, collaborative research.