Improving Students ’ Data Analysis Skills in the Laboratory PAPER

University Chemistry Education is published in April and September. It receives substantial financial support from Glaxo Wellcome plc, and is available free of charge to all members of the Education Division of the Royal Society of Chemistry who are over 29 and employed in institutions of higher education. Glaxo Wellcome support for this journal forms part of a continuing programme of charitable contributions which places emphasis on health care and scientific and medical education. The journal is aimed at those who teach chemistry in higher education. As a journal for all practising teachers of chemistry at this level it deals with any topic of practical relevance and use to those involved. It is a place to publish effective methods and ideas for the teaching and learning of chemistry and issues related to the effectiveness of teaching and learning. Contributions are particularly welcome if the subject matter can be applied widely and is concerned with encouraging active and independent learning , with increasing student motivation for learning, with helping them to become effective exploiters of their chemical knowledge and understanding, or with assessment. Contributions should be of clear practical interest to those who teach chemistry. There are no hard and fast rules for subdividing manuscripts. However, an introduction should provide a clear statement of the relationship of what is described to previous work and opinion (and is likely to include some references to some aspects of educational theory), and also the overall purpose of the article (including, where appropriate, the educational objectives, intended learning outcomes and why these are not satisfactorily achieved by other approaches). Other sections may be equivalent to 'methods', 'results', and 'discussion' as used in conventional scientific papers; these sections would describe how the work was carried out, show or illustrate the outcomes (new teaching materials etc) which have been created, and critically evaluate how far the original objectives have been met. It is accepted that evaluation will rarely involve the use of rigorous control groups; but manuscripts should include a discussion of some appropriate method of evaluation leading to critical assessment of the effectiveness of the work described. Contributors should make clear the extent to which the work described could be transported to other institutions. All contributions should be written in a language readily accessible to academic chemists of any specialism; technical language appropriate to educational research should be avoided or explained. Four types of contribution may …