Facilitating transition for both learners and teachers in the first-year chemistry laboratory

Abstract

An induction session for demonstrators was devised and run in 2012 to explain changes to the laboratory program in a first-year chemistry subject and encourage demonstrators toward practices that would make the laboratory an effective learning experience for students. The induction session was an opportunity to explore matters relating to expectations: particularly the expectations that the students could have of the demonstrators and the expectations that the demonstrators could reasonably have of the students. The purpose of the induction session was to help demonstrators focus on enhancing the learning opportunities for students in the laboratory, as the practical sessions were the only small-group teaching opportunity in the week. Running this activity, and paying the demonstrators to attend, was a way of honouring the contribution that casual teachers make to our program and reinforces their status as ‘academics-in-training’. The induction session has been run again in 2013, with modifications based on feedback from the 2012 session.