1. Bengkel Pelaporan Hasil Penyelidikan Pendidikan
Pre-laboratory Exercise Enhance Student Preparedness for Practical
Classes by Sheila Shamuganathan
2. Introduction Laboratory classes are where science students
acquire and practice key manipulative and process skill, while
learning to move concepts from an abstract into a concrete setting.
(OBrien & Cameron, 2008). Pre-laboratory Exercise Enhance
Students Preparedness for PracticalClasses
3. However students may be at risk of information overload
during a laboratory class as they try to cope with technical and
manipulative task as well as master new concepts (Mester &
Maskill, 1995; Pogaenik & Cigic, 2006). Pre-laboratory Exercise
Enhance Students Preparedness forPractical Classes
4. One effective way to reduce cognitive load and to increase
meaningful learning during laboratory classes (OBrien &
Cameron, 2008) is through effective pre-laboratory preparation.
Preparatory exercise take many forms, including short face-to-face
tutorials with associated tests (Pogacnik & Cigic, 2006), or
on-line work modules in which the practical task is carried out in
a virtual environment (Schmid & Yeung, 2005). Pre-laboratory
Exercise Enhance Students Preparedness forPractical Classes
5. To be effective, pre-laboratory preparation needs to be more
than just an encouragement for students to read their manual before
coming to class: pre-laboratory exercises must be designed as
carefully as the practical manual itself (Johnstone & Al-
Shuaili , 2006). Pre-laboratory Exercise Enhance Students
Preparedness forPractical Classes
6. Kirk and Layman (1996) conducted research on improving
student understanding in an introductory chemistry course. Of the
students interviewed, they found 41% felt better prepared when they
used a pre-laboratory guide for laboratory preparation.
Pre-laboratory Exercise Enhance Students Preparedness forPractical
Classes
7. Barnes and Thornton (1998) conducted research on
pre-laboratory effectiveness using both quantitative and
qualitative methods. They found no significant correlation between
performance and pre-laboratory questions and the laboratory reports
or the mid semester exams. However, they found that students felt
that using the pre- laboratory questions made writing the lab
report easier. Pre-laboratory Exercise Enhance Students
Preparedness for Practical Classes
8. Students who complete pre -laboratory exercises feel better
prepared and believes that these activities help them perform well
during the investigation and on laboratory assignments (Kirk &
Layman; Barnes & Thornton 1998). Moreover, there is some
indication that pre laboratory may correlate with an increase in
student performance on post laboratory assessment (Johnstone.et
al,1998). Pre-laboratory Exercise Enhance Students Preparedness for
Practical Classes
9. Laboratory work is an established part of courses in
Matriculation for science courses in consonance with the National
Education Philosophy, science education in Malaysia nurtures a
science and technology culture by focusing on the development of
individuals who are competitive ,dynamic robust and resilient and
able to master scientific knowledge and technological competency.
Pre-laboratory Exercise Enhance Students Preparedness forPractical
Classes
10. The practical sessions are aimed to ensure that the
students are well equipped with the necessary scientific skills
which encompass science process and manipulative skills. It is also
argued that laboratory work in higher education cannot be seen in
isolation. Pre-laboratory Exercise Enhance Students Preparedness
for Practical Classes
11. Greater importance is the need to see the hands on
laboratory time as part of a wider process of learning. Together,
these may enrich and enhance the whole laboratory experiences and
enable it to contribute more effectively to the overall learning of
students in chemistry. Pre-laboratory Exercise Enhance Students
Preparedness for PracticalClasses
12. Problem Statement Each steps of the procedure is carefully
prescribed and students are expected to follow the procedure
exactly. Usually, a little is left to the students own thought or
ingenuity. This type of laboratory activity is often referred to as
a recipe lab (Domain 1999). Pre-laboratory Exercise Enhance
Students Preparedness forPractical Classes
13. Johnston (1997) reported that the laboratory is a place for
information overloaded, which result in students having little
brain space to process information and therefore they blindly
follow the instruction and seldom interpret the observations or the
result made during the experiment. Pre-laboratory Exercise Enhance
Students Preparedness forPractical Classes
14. The majority of the pre-laboratory instruction in the past
has been in the form of a pre-laboratory lecture by the lecturer or
the demonstrators. This system has two main disadvantages; students
are not required to do anything in preparation for laboratory work.
As a result, they are likely to come to the pre- laboratory class
without having so much to read the laboratory manual to find out
what they are going to do in the laboratory. Pre-laboratory
Exercise Enhance Students Preparedness for Practical Classes
15. However it is hoped that, having answered the
pre-laboratory questions, students will come to the laboratory with
a greater understanding than they do currently of not only the
procedures they are about to carry out, but also the theoretical
basis for the experiment. Pre-laboratory Exercise Enhance Students
Preparedness forPractical Classes
16. It is hoped that the pre-laboratory questions will be more
effective than the lecture in getting to think about what they are
going to be doing in the laboratory and why, which will make the
laboratory sessions more useful in consolidating the concepts
taught in the lectures. Pre-laboratory Exercise Enhance Students
Preparedness for PracticalClasses
17. Purpose of the Study The purpose of this study is to
investigate how our chemistry students SK016 usually prepare for
practical classes, and whether they felt well- prepared for
practical classes after introduction of the pre laboratory
exercise. As the study did not attempt to directly measure the
impact on learning outcomes, instead we focused on how the
availability of the pre labs affected students perceptions of their
preparedness for practical classes. Pre-laboratory Exercise Enhance
Students Preparedness forPractical Classes
18. Research Question To investigate whether the pre laboratory
exercise can enhance students Preparedness for Practical Class.
Pre-laboratory Exercise Enhance Students Preparedness forPractical
Classes
19. Research Methodology All the students in this Matriculation
programme Academic Year 2011/2012 (Module 1, Module 2 and Module 3)
are needed to answer the pre laboratory question on line which is
loaded into our on-line learning site the week before the relevant
practical classes and the students are alerted to this during their
lectures. Pre-laboratory Exercise Enhance Students Preparedness
forPractical Classes
20. There are nine practical conducted by the lecturer
throughout semester 1 and eight pre labs exercise according to the
topics are given to the students beforehand. Pre-laboratory
Exercise Enhance Students Preparedness forPractical Classes
21. This study involves 50 biological sciences students (Module
1) and 50 physical students (Module 2) using questionnaire as the
instrument. The samples are selected randomly to undergo this
survey. The sample are students of about 18 years old and have been
selected to Matriculation Programme based on their academic results
of Pre-laboratory Exercise Enhance Students Preparedness for
SPM.Practical Classes
22. The students submit their laboratory report through the
learning portal. The students are free to consult their lecturers
or classmates for assistance in answering the pre- laboratory
exercise both inside and out of class time. Students answers to the
pre-laboratory exercise were graded by the laboratory lecturer and
returned to the students at the beginning of the laboratory class.
Pre-laboratory Exercise Enhance Students Preparedness forPractical
Classes
23. A set of model answers for the laboratory exercise were
made available for the students to consult after they had handed
their own answers. Answers to the pre-laboratory questions were
discussed during the laboratory class Pre-laboratory Exercise
Enhance Students Preparedness forPractical Classes
24. The questionnaires were distributed to the student at the
end of the semester after the students had completed all the
pre-laboratory exercise and experiments. The students were asked to
respond to a series of statements by indicating how strongly they
agree with the statement. Pre-laboratory Exercise Enhance Students
Preparedness forPractical Classes
25. A scale of 1 to 5 of Likert scale was presented for each
item (1- strongly disagree, 5- strongly agree) for the students to
indicate their response to Part A of the questionnaire. In the part
B of the survey, students were asked to make written responses to
nine questions regarding the use of pre-laboratory exercise as part
of the laboratory program and assessment. Pre-laboratory Exercise
Enhance Students Preparedness forPractical Classes
26. The instrument on the questionnaire derived from a student
survey used by a chemistry department (Bennett, 1994). The
instrument was proof read by the chemistry lecturers before the
questionnaires were distributed to the samples. Pre-laboratory
Exercise Enhance Students Preparedness forPractical Classes
27. Result and DiscussionQuestion 1 For the survey data, only 5
% of students reported that they did a substantial amount of
preparation before entering the laboratory for practical classes
for Experiment 1 as there were no pre-laboratory exercise were
given by the lecturers (rated as 4 or 5 on a Likert scale)
Pre-laboratory Exercise Enhance Students Preparedness for
PracticalClasses
28. 35.6% of the class considered they did some preparation for
class (rating 3 on the Likert scale), 59.4% reported doing little
or no preparation (rating 2 or 1) Pre-laboratory Exercise Enhance
Students Preparedness for PracticalClasses
29. The positive responses to item 2, 3 ,4 and 5 on the survey
were particularly encouraging. It seems that the pre-laboratory
questions did achieve their aim of encouraging the students to
think through the laboratory procedure before coming to the
laboratory. A majority of students agreed that completing the
pre-laboratory questions made writing the laboratory report easier
(Question 6). Pre-laboratory Exercise Enhance Students Preparedness
for Practical Classes
30. Question 7 suggest a positive change in the students
attitude towards laboratory work. This is the most significant
result. The response to questions that dealt with the students
writing their own procedures (Question 8 and 9) was fairly neutral.
It does not seem from the survey that students objected to the idea
, but considerable amount of nervousness was observed during the
laboratory sessions. Pre-laboratory Exercise Enhance Students
Preparedness for PracticalClasses
31. Part B Question1 asked students whether they enjoyed doing
laboratory work, 73.8% of biological students agreed that they
enjoyed doing laboratory work compared to 82.5% of physical science
student. 43.7% reported that they dont like doing laboratory work
Pre-laboratory Exercise Enhance Students Preparedness forPractical
Classes
32. The response to Question 2 , it was intended that the
pre-laboratory exercise would take an average of one hour for the
students, the survey shows that 46.0% of biological students and
72.5%.of physical science students finished their laboratory
exercise within an hour. Pre-laboratory Exercise Enhance Students
Preparedness forPractical Classes
33. The overwhelming respond to question 3 was that doing pre
laboratory questions did not increase the stress associated with
laboratory work . On the contrary, many students commented that
having answered pre-laboratory questions actually reduced the
amount of stress in the laboratory. Pre-laboratory Exercise Enhance
Students Preparedness forPractical Classes
34. It was expected that the response to question 6 would be in
favour of abandoning laboratory reports.. This was not the case.
Very little explanation of this response was offered by students.
Students response to question (7) again showed their fear of
failure in the laboratory , as a major reason given for preferring
pre-laboratory exercise over laboratory reports as a form of
assessment was that the resulting grade was not affected by
mistakes in the laboratory, and a major reason for not preferring
pre-laboratory questions was that students had not yet understood
the laboratory exercise (i.e would not get a good mark on the
pre-laboratory exercise). Pre-laboratory Exercise Enhance Students
Preparedness for Practical Classes
35. Analysis of responses to Question 8, which asked about the
kinds of things that worry me the most showed that students
greatest concern were: using my time efficiently (28 .8 % ) of
total responses knowing what the main or important parts of the
practical are (25.8%) knowing what to do next (24 .7%)
understanding the information in the practical manual(20.7%).
Pre-laboratory Exercise Enhance Students Preparedness for Practical
Classes
36. Question 9 asked students to rate the usefulness of the
pre-laboratory in helping them prepare for practical classes on a
scale of 1 to 5, where 1- not at all, and 5- extremely useful. An
overwhelming majority (84.5%) of the students rated the usefulness
of the pre-laboratory highly: at 4 (38.1%) or 5 (42.9%). Only
(6.7%) felt the pre- laboratory exercise were of little or no
assistance. Pre-laboratory Exercise Enhance Students Preparedness
for Practical Classes
37. Conclusion The response from the students is that the pre-
laboratory questions were a worthwhile exercise. Students came to
their laboratory classes having done at least some preparation,
which is a significant improvement from previous years. Most
students agreed that pre-laboratory exercises were helpful to them
in completing their laboratory work. Pre-laboratory Exercise
Enhance Students Preparedness forPractical Classes
38. This study has highlighted the effectiveness of
pre-laboratory in improving the preparedness of the Penang
Matriculation student SK016 for chemistry practical classes. The
pre-laboratory exercises for effective pre-laboratory work that the
Matriculation lecturers prepared actually helps the students to be
active participants in the laboratory work in the laboratory.
Pre-laboratory Exercise Enhance Students Preparedness forPractical
Classes
39. This study has highlighted the effectiveness of pre-
laboratory in improving the preparedness of the Penang
Matriculation student SK016 for chemistry practical classes. The
pre-laboratory exercises for effective pre-laboratory work that the
Matriculation lecturers prepared actually helps the students to be
active participants in the laboratory work in the laboratory
Pre-laboratory Exercise Enhance Students Preparedness for Practical
Classes
40. The pre-laboratory exercise might be incorporated in the
implementation of the pre laboratory exercise into chemistry lab
curriculum. Tailoring the pre-laboratory exercise to the experiment
module will be potential benefit to the students in the
Matriculation College. Therefore, pre-laboratory exercise could be
added to direct students attention to specific features of each
experiment. Students would thus have the best of both approaches to
preparing for SK016 Chemistry in the matriculation colleges.
Pre-laboratory Exercise Enhance Students Preparedness forPractical
Classes
41. Reference Barnes, R. and Thornton, B. (1998), Preparing for
Laboratory work. In Black, B. and Stanley, N.(Eds), Teaching and
Learning in Changing Times, 28-32. Proceedings of the 7 th Annual
Teaching Forum, The University of Western Australia, February 1998.
Perth :UMA.Retrieved November 12 , 2011,
http://lsn.curtain.edu.au/tlf/tlfl1998/barnes.html. Hodson, D.
(1993) Re thinking old ways: towards a more critical approach to
pratical work in school science, Studies in Science education 22 ,
85-142 Johnstone, A. H & Al-Shuaili A. (2001). Learning in the
laboratory: some thoughts from the literature. University Chemistry
Education 5, 42-51. Meester M.A.M. & Maskill. R (1995) First
year chemistry practicals at universities in England and Wales:
organizational and teaching aspects. International Journal of
science Education, 17, 705-719. Pre-laboratory Exercise Enhance
Students Preparedness for PracticalClasses
42. O Brien, G. & Cameron, M (2008) Pre laboratory
activities to enhance the laboratory learning experience. UniServe
Science Proceedings 2005, 80-85. Retrieved October 3, 2011 from
http://science.uniserve.edu.au/pubs/procs/2008/index.html.
Progacnik. L. & Cigic B (2006). How to motivate students to
study before enter the lab. Journal of Chemical Education 83,
1091-1098. Kirk, Maria R,: Layman, John W. A Pre lab guide for
General Chemistry : Improving Students Understanding of Chemical
Concepts and Processes. Schmid, S & young, A. (2005). The
influence of a pre-laboratory work module on student performance in
the first year laboratory, Proceedings HERDSA Annual Conference 3-6
July 2005. Sydney Australia 471-479.Retrieved October 5, 2011 from
http://conference.herdsa.org.au/2005/paper index.cfm for
Pre-laboratory Exercise Enhance Students PreparednessPractical
Classes
43. Pre-laboratory Exercise Enhance Students Preparednessfor
Practical Classes