Sponsor
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 2120843.
Published In
Chemistry Education Research and Practice
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
11-20-2022
Subjects
Chemistry -- Study and teaching (Higher) -- Research, Chemistry -- Curriculum -- Assessment, Group work in education, Student-centered learning
Abstract
The level of students’ engagement during active learning activities conducted in small groups is important to understanding the effectiveness of these activities. The Interactive–Constructive–Active–Passive (ICAP) framework is a way to determine the cognitive engagement of these groups by analyzing the conversations that occur while student groups work on an activity. This study used qualitative content analysis and ICAP to investigate cognitive engagement during group activities in a General Chemistry course at the question level, a finer grain size than previously studied. The analysis determined the expected engagement based on question design and the observed engagement based on group conversations. Comparisons of expected and observed engagement showed cases of mismatch, and further analysis determined that incorrect model use, unfamiliar scientific vocabulary, and difficulty moving between molecular representations were all contributing themes to the observed mismatches. The implications of these findings with regard to teaching and research are discussed.
Rights
Copyright (c) 2021 The Authors
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
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DOI
10.1039/d1rp00276g
Persistent Identifier
https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/36896
Citation Details
El-Mansy, S. Y., Barbera, J., & Hartig, A. J. (2022). Investigating small-group cognitive engagement in general chemistry learning activities using qualitative content analysis and the ICAP framework. Chemistry Education Research and Practice.