Departing from Lectures: An Evaluation of a Peer-Led Guided Inquiry Alternative

Abstract

To improve a large-enrollment general chemistry course based on conventional lectures, we instituted a reform combining peer-led team learning with a guided inquiry approach, together called peer-led guided inquiry (PLGI). For one group of first-semester general chemistry students, a PLGI session was combined with two lectures per week, and this group was compared to a control group that had the usual three lectures per week. Students were compared based on performance on identical course exams and on a final exam from the ACS Examinations Institute given at the end of the semester. The experimental group was found to perform better than the control group overall, in spite of experiencing one fewer lecture each week. Also, attendance at the PLGI sessions was found to have a significant positive impact on student performance, even when controlling for students’ SAT mathematics and verbal scores. This method of evaluating reform effects for institutions with several large sections of introductory chemistry courses is recommended.