Chemistry Education and Research

Biography

Biography: GLORIA QUINTANILLA

Abstract

All social networking such as Facebook, Twitter or WhatsApp produce an immediacy which prevents, especially the young people, from going deeper in any thought or communication among others. As a contrast, a group of teachers of different subjects of the University of Alcalá, headed and caught up by an Organic Chemistry professor, have implemented a teaching strategy in which the main objective is the reflection, named “Weekly Reflection Papers”, (WRP). Initially in this experience, the students handed in to the lecturer every week their “weekly assignments”, in which they schematically express the most important ideas related to the topic presented during the classes of the previous week including also their impressions or comments on those aspects which they found especially difficult or interesting.  Teachers give back to the students the corrected WRP and respond to the student’s comments. The implemented strategy represents an excellent vehicle to allow us to explore and analyse the learning process.

However, we checked that the reflective ability of students had to be enhanced, consequently in this communication we describe how along the years we have put more emphasis in the way the reflection has to be done helped by questions as: “What is the most important contribution given to you by the professor in order to increase your personal development? What changes have been produced in your intellectual baggage as a consequence of the classes? Which are the most difficult aspects you have found in your learning process? What can you suggest to improve the teaching and learning process? Where can you find in your real life the knowledges you have recently acquired?”