I am interested in the development and adoption of methodologies in chemistry instruction that enable students to become engaged learners, shifting the focus from faculty instruction to student learning. The goal is to improve students understanding of chemistry, their ability to apply learning to new situations, and enhance their critical thinking and problem solving skills. Currently, ‘scaffolding’ of student learning is achieved by interweaving asynchronous online learning, in the form of online homework and timed online quizzes, with face-to-face learning, in lecture and Team-Based Learning sessions. This is designed to help transition students’ knowledge levels and problem solving abilities from level 1 skills (recall, repeat, reproduce, state) to level 2 (explain, classify, recognize), and finally to higher order thinking skills, level 3 and 4 (application, analysis, interpretation, comparison) (Anderson et. al. (2001)). All of the activities enable students to assess their comprehension and skills relative to their peers, therefore, developing their metacognitive skills. Assessment of student learning as a result of adoption of these methodologies is an important component of the research.
