Departing from Lectures: An Evaluation of a Peer-Led Guided Inquiry Alternative

www.JCE.DivCHED.org • Vol. 82 No. 1 January 2005 • Journal of Chemical Education 135 General chemistry courses at the University of South Florida have historically been taught in lecture format to accommodate the large class size, typically about 200 students.1 To create a more student-centered learning experience, a reform method was employed based on the Peer-Led Team Learning (PLTL) developed by the National Science Foundation systemic change initiative (1, 2). In this method, students work in groups of 10, with each group assigned to one peer leader. The peer leader is an undergraduate student who has successfully completed the general chemistry course. Guided inquiry has shown promise in recent studies (3); we chose a guided-inquiry methodology as described by Farrell et al. (4) to be the basis for this reform initiative. Fortunately the PLTL scenario facilitates the implementation of the guidedinquiry methods, which can be used in smaller groups (3–4 students) within the already small groups of a typical PLTL workshop. This combination results in what we term peerled guided inquiry (PLGI). The pedagogical focus of PLGI is on student–student interactions within small groups, with a peer leader acting as a facilitator for those interactions.