Below are a selection of publications produced by or in collaboration with the Randles Research Group
Key Stakeholders’ Interpretations of Scientific Information Literacy: A Survey of Orange and Seminole County K-16 Educators
28 June 2023
Matilynn Lam, Barabara Chiu, Christopher Randles
Due to the constant presence of information, it is imperative that today’s students can evaluate and apply the information effectively. This skillset, known as information literacy (IL), is valuable in all fields, yet state and national education standards have little in terms of developing those skills in current curriculums. Due to this lack, it is increasingly important to have open discussions about IL with key education stakeholders, like K-16 educators, to identify their interpretations and assessment of IL and its potential integration into the science curriculum. We aim to answer three questions: (1) How do Central Florida education stakeholders interpret information literacy, (2) How is information literacy represented by stakeholders when teaching scientific content, and (3) How can data from education stakeholders support developing initial threshold concepts for scientific information literacy? To begin, a set of focus groups were conducted with Central Florida K-16 educators and librarians to determine how they interpreted and assessed IL, and the perceived obstacles they encounter with integrating IL in science instruction. As these educators and librarians are involved with the current guidelines and standards, the insight they provided from these discussions will be useful in aligning IL with these standards and threshold concepts. These discussions have also allowed for the survey development to probe at a larger set of higher educators. This survey will allow education stakeholders to evaluate IL within science classrooms. This survey data will allow us to generate greater awareness about IL and its teaching practices and better understand educator perceptions of IL.
Matilynn Lam, Barabara Chiu, Christopher Randles (2023) Key Stakeholders’ Interpretations of Scientific Information Literacy: A Survey of Orange and Seminole County K-16 Educators. Seventeenth Conference on Education and Training in Optics and Photonics: ETOP 2023. https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2673250
Analyzing Student Problem Solving With MAtCH
12 January 2022
Barbara Chiu, Christopher Randles, Stefan Irby
Problem-solving has been recognized as a critical skill that students lack in the current education system, due to the use of algorithmic questions in tests that can be simply memorized and solved without conceptual understanding. Research on student problem-solving is needed to gain deeper insight into how students are approaching problems and where they lack proficiency so that instruction can help students gain a conceptual understanding of chemistry. The MAtCH (methods, analogies, theory, context, how) model was recently developed from analyzing expert explanations of their research and could be a valuable model to identify key components of student problem-solving. Using phenomenography, this project will address the current gap in the literature of applying the MAtCH model to student responses. Twenty-two undergraduate students from first-year general chemistry and general physics classes were recorded using a think-aloud protocol as they worked through the following open-ended problems: 1) How many toilets do you need at a music festival? 2) How far does a car travel before one atom layer is worn off the tires? 3)What is the mass of the Earth’s atmosphere? The original definitions of MAtCH were adapted to better fit student problem-solving, and then the newly defined model was used as an analytical framework to code the student transcripts. Applying the MAtCH model within student problem-solving has revealed a reliance on the method component, namely, using formulas and performing simple plug-and-chug calculations, over deeper analysis of the question or evaluation of their work. More important than the order of the components, the biggest differences in promoted versus impeded problem-solving are how students incorporate multiple components of MAtCH and apply them as they work through the problems. The results of this study will further discuss in detail the revisions made to apply MAtCH definitions to student transcripts and give insight into the elements that promote and impede student problem-solving under the MAtCH model.
Barbara Chiu, Christopher Randles, Stefan Irby (2022) Analyzing Student Problem-Solving With MAtCH. Frontiers in Education (6) https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2021.769042
Developing and Evaluating a Graduate Student Teaching Assistant Training Course in the Chemistry Department of a Large American University
May 27th 2020
Franziska Lang, Christopher A Randles, Kathleen A Jeffery
Graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) play an essential role in the teaching of introductory chemistry courses at many higher education institutions. On the basis of best practices suggested by the literature, we developed our GTA training course to focus on modeling best practices in the classroom, providing opportunities for incoming GTAs to try new teaching methodologies and reflect on their teaching, and observing and giving feedback on their teaching throughout the course. Here we describe the structure of a GTA training course, provide our course evaluation methods, and present end-of-semester survey data from trainee GTAs (t-GTAs) and experienced GTA (e-GTA) volunteers that helped with the course. The findings indicate that the majority of t-GTAs appreciated the course structure and topics. In particular, t-GTAs found discussions helped them learn the material and greatly appreciated the opportunity to observe someone teaching and be observed during their teaching. Several areas for improvement were also identified, including more opportunities to observe peers, additional topics such as classroom management, and greater support in applying course topics to individual teaching environments. e-GTAs on the other hand reported positively on how the course impacted their own professional development through honing their observational skills and their ability to provide constructive feedback, as well as adding to their own knowledge on teaching methodologies through observing t-GTAs. Intending to provide insight on how course evaluation data can be used to inform change, we discuss our findings in terms of the specific changes that will be made at Purdue Chemistry in future course iterations, as well as in terms of implementing or revising GTA training at other institutions. We hope that the course structure, evaluation approach, and data described here provide insight into other institutions interested in changing their own GTA programs.
Franziska K. Lang, Christopher A. Randles, and Kathleen A. Jeffery Journal of Chemical Education 2020 97 (6), 1515-1529 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.9b00686
Development and use of a Multiple-Choice Item Writing Flaws Evaluation Instrument in the Context of General Chemistry
22nd January 2019
Jared Breakall, Christopher Randles, Roy Tasker
Multiple-choice (MC) exams are common in undergraduate general chemistry courses in the United States and are known for being difficult to construct. With their extensive use in the general chemistry classroom, it is important to ensure that these exams are valid measures of what chemistry students know and can do. One threat to MC exam validity is the presence of flaws, known as item writing flaws, that can falsely inflate or deflate a student’s performance on an exam, independent of their chemistry knowledge. Such flaws can disadvantage (or falsely advantage) students in their exam performance. Additionally, these flaws can introduce unwanted noise into exam data. With the numerous possible flaws that can be made during MC exam creation, it can be difficult to recognize (and avoid) these flaws when creating MC general chemistry exams. In this study a rubric, known as the Item Writing Flaws Evaluation Instrument (IWFEI), has been created that can be used to identify item writing flaws in MC exams. The instrument was developed based on a review of the item writing literature and was tested for inter-rater reliability using general chemistry exam items. The instrument was found to have a high degree of inter-rater reliability with an overall percent agreement of 91.8% and a Krippendorff Alpha of 0.836. Using the IWFEI in an analysis of 1019 general chemistry MC exam items, it was found that 83% of items contained at least one item writing flaw with the most common flaw being the inclusion of implausible distractors. From the results of this study, an instrument has been developed that can be used in both research and teaching settings. As the IWFEI is used in these settings we envision an improvement in MC exam development practice and quality.
Jared Breakall, Christopher Randles, and Roy Tasker Chemistry Education Research and Practice 2019, 20, 369-382 DOI: 10.1039/c8rp00262b
How do Approaches to Solving Open-Ended Problems vary Within the Science Disciplines?
31st July 2018
Christopher Randles, Tina Overton, Ross Galloway, Marsali Wallace
This paper describes the results of a comparative study into the approaches used by science undergraduates when solving openended problems. This study adopted a pseudo-grounded theory framework to analyse six case studies, one from each of the science disciplines studied. The study involved 70 participants from 5 institutions solving open-ended problems using a thinkaloud protocol. Analysis of the data identified a number of different approaches used by each subject group. Participants in psychology, pharmacy and sports rehabilitation used a greater number of novice-like approaches than participants in chemistry, physics and interdisciplinary science. The approaches used by physical science participants were very similar whereas those from pharmacy, sports rehabilitation and psychology were more varied and relied on students’ ability to relate to a familiar context. Evaluation of the relative quality of solutions showed variation with discipline.
Christopher Randles, Tina Overton, Ross Galloway & Marsali Wallace, International Journal of Science Education, 2018, 40:11, 1367-1390, DOI: 10.1080/09500693.2018.1503432
Expert Vs. Novice: Approaches used by Chemists when Solving Open-Ended Problems
July 7th 2015
Christopher Randles, Tina Overton
This paper describes the results of a qualitative study using ground theory to investigate the different approaches used by chemists when answering open-ended problems. The study involved undergraduate, industrialist and academic participants who individually answered three open-ended problems using a think aloud protocol. Open-ended problems are defined here as problems where not all the required data are given, where there is no one single possible strategy and there is no single correct answer to the problem. Analysis of the qualitative data identified a limited number of different approaches used to solve open-ended problems. These approaches were applied to individual participants and these were collated to identify approaches used by each group. The relative quality of solutions developed by each group was also analysed. Analysis showed that undergraduates adopted a greater number of novice-like approaches and produced poorest quality solutions, academics exhibited expert-like approaches and produced the highest quality solutions, whilst industrial chemist’s approaches are described as transitional.
Christopher Randles & Tina Overton, Chemistry Education Research and Practice 2015, 16, 811-823, DOI: 10.1039/c5rp00114e