Illustrated laboratory procedures in chemistry: Effects on the achievement of surface and deep learners

This study compares the effectiveness of the use of illustrated laboratory procedure and the use of regular laboratory manual in teaching chemistry laboratory course. The effects were determined in terms of differences in achievement between first year engineering technology students who were subjected to illustrated laboratory procedure and those using regular laboratory manual. The significant differences in achievement between types of learners and the interaction effect exist between laboratory method and types of learners were also determined. The subjects of the study cover four intact classes of 93 sample students (46 students for the experimental group and 47 students for the control group) enrolled in Chemistry 122 (General and Inorganic Chemistry 122 Laboratory) during the second semester of school year 1997-98 at the Technological University of the Philippines. A non-equivalent control group design (quasi-experimental) was adopted in this study. A 30-item chemistry learning approach inventory and 40-item chemistry achievement test constructed by the researcher were used as instruments of the study. The chemistry achievement test served as the pretest and posttest. Student\u27s achievement data were treated using ANCOVA with the pretest as covariate and the posttest as the criterion. All tests of significance were determined at the 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study revealed that:1. Students in the experimental group significantly performed better than those in the control group. 2. There was no significant difference between deep and surface learners.3. A significant interaction effect exist between the teaching method and the learning styles of the students. The deep learners favor the use of illustrated laboratory procedure, whereas surface learners favor the use of regular laboratory manual. The conclusion base on the findings of the study was that the use of illustrated laboratory procedure in teaching chemistry laboratory course enhances the achievement of students deep learners do not differ in performance with surface learners and that interaction exist between learning styles of students and the teaching methods