A Comparative Study of POGIL and CLUE

Research projects over the years have sought to determine the most effective method for helping students learn science concepts. Since there is often a gap between research and implantation in a classroom, this study was done to provide a bridge between that gap. In this study, it was not necessary to take new methods of teaching chemistry into a classroom, which is often difficult to implement. Instead, the effectiveness of two methods of teaching chemistry were determined for a small group of general chemistry students. The focus of this study was two methods of teaching chemistry which were chosen because of their unique methodology and focus on how learning takes place. The two methods studied were Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning (POGIL) and a textbook entitled Chemistry, Life, the Universe, and Everything (CLUE). After a study of POGIL and CLUE and the learning theory behind each method, the study was set up. This study took place of the course of the 2015-2016 school year with the Fall semester being devoted to a study of POGIL and the Spring semester focusing on CLUE. Students from all the sections of a general chemistry course were invited to tutoring sessions. During each respective semester, the tutor taught the students using methods based on POGIL and CLUE. A sequential mixed methods design was employed for this study with an emphasis on the qualitative observations of the tutor. Additionally, at the end of each semester, the students who had received tutoring were invited to take a survey regarding the experiences with and perceptions of the tutoring. The surveys along with the tutor’s field notes were used to determine the relative effectiveness of each method as it was implemented in a tutoring setting