In-the-moment Learning of Organic Chemistry During Interactive Lectures Through the Lens of Practical Epistemology Analysis

Abstract

Although many studies have used interviews to explore how students' reason about organic chemistry problems, less is known about how students learn in-the-moment in natural settings, such as during discussions in active learning settings. In this chapter, we draw on practical epistemology analysis (PEA) to define in-the-moment learning as the noticing of gaps, i.e., students' needs to make something intelligible to be able to progress in an activity, and the filling of these gaps with relations, i.e., connections between what is in question and prior conceptual knowledge or familiar skills. Through analyzing video recordings of students in an interactive general chemistry lecture working on organic chemistry content in groups facilitated by learning assistants, we demonstrate the power of PEA as a tool to make student learning during collaborative group discussion visible. By doing so we aim to provide a lens for practitioners who teach organic chemistry to notice how students' in-the-moment learning progresses and how their facilitation relates to that progression and for researchers to make this progression as it occurs in the moment accessible for their own investigation.