Bridging the Gap between Theory and Practice on an Example of Chemical Laboratory

Each and every of the authors has encountered a situation when students arrive at the laboratory classes and, after being given their work assignments, do not really possess the required knowledge to proceed with them. Of course, the severity of the problem varies significantly between the students and between the courses, but — in our opinion — it is common and serious enough to warrant some closer examination. In this project our primary goal is to analyse the possible reasons for this situation in a reasonably generic way. We identify seven main areas which can contribute to making it a serious problem. From our experiences, no particular course exhibits deficiencies in all of those areas, but any number of them can contribute to a common final effect. We will begin by conducting a short survey in order to estimate how common the problem actually is, but also to discover how it is perceived by interested parties. We will do this by interviewing students, teaching assistants and lecturers. In our opinion, those three groups are together responsible for making laboratories and lectures fit smoothly. If any of them do not fulfill their obligations, problems will inevitably occur. Finally, we attempt to, briefly, discuss possible ways in which teachers or students who become aware that the problem exists might act to improve things. We will consider ways of identifying which of the generic causes analysed above are most severe in a particular teaching environment, and what actions would be most effective in improving the situation. In the next section, we will, in more detail, present the exact problem we are interested in. We will follow with a description of the survey performed and with report of interview results. In section 4, we will analyse how the course as a whole should be planned. In section 5, we focus on laboratories part and how to improve an existing situation over which one has limited control. Finally, in section 6, we discuss some ideas for communication between students, teaching assistants and lecturers which help to avoid or minimise conflicts when resolving problems.