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educators possess an ingenuous, “magical” vision,
towards the technologies and its potentialities,
thinking that with the insertion of new technolo-
gies learning problems will finish. The advances
on new technologies will be of little help without
changes in the ways of education, of learning and
communication. “We assume that the effective-
ness of computer simulations is determined by
two factors: the simulation design and the context
in which simulations are used” (Zhou, Brouwer,
Nocente & Martin, 2005). In order to change
the context in which we live, we need to fully
involve the student, by creating an environment
of co-creation of the knowledge, where profes-
sors as much as students are active parts, treading
together the way to be covered.
methods seem be the antecedents of those found
in the modern graduate-level chemical research
program” (Ellio, Stewart & Lagowski, 2008).
“Laboratories are one of the characteristic
features of education in the sciences at all levels”
(Reid & Shah, 2007). Everybody knows of the
importance of the laboratory classes, however a
few manage to justify its presence. Could it be
fundamental for the learning process? “Many re-
search studies have been conducted to investigate
the educational effectiveness of laboratory work
in science education in facilitating the attainment
of the cognitive, affective, and practical goals.
These studies have been critically and extensively
reviewed in the academic literature. From these
reviews it is to clear that in general, although
the science laboratory has been given distinctive
rolls in science education, research has failed to
show simple relationships between experiences
in the laboratory and student learning” (Hofstein
& Mamlok-Naaman, 2007). Moreover, we can
criticize the existence of the laboratory classes
for the high cost of its programs, as much in
terms of material as in terms of the involved staff.
“University student's reactions to the practical
work are often negative and this may reflect
student perception that there is lack of any clear
purpose for the experiments: they go through the
experiment without adequate stimulation” (Reid
& Shah, 2007).
Liebig's style of chemical instruction can
be described as “problem-based”, because in
this way the student developed his abilities and
strategies of research better, in contrast to many
laboratories where the students only observed
the professors making the experiments. We
notice that, to reach the goals which have been
proposed by a laboratory class, it is necessary to
use an adequate methodology, where the student
feels motivated and perceives the importance of
the experiments and their relations to the theory.
But will an adequate methodology, by itself, be
enough? Perhaps yes, but certainly with the in-
troduction of computing in the academic world,
tHE LABorAtory cLASSES
In cHEmIStry tEAcHIng
The laboratory classes, in particular, can obtain
great advantage when we examine the new tech-
nologies and methods of education. Even more
if we come to analyze the difficulties that have
been faced in these classes, since its introduc-
tion until the present. “Chemistry as we know it,
did not exist before Lavoisier (1743-1794). The
wealth of facts that had been accumulated by the
practitioners of the chemical arts were gathered
by Lavoisier and others and interpreted correctly
to start what some have called the chemical revo-
lution” (Ellio, Stewart & Lagowski, 2008). The
practice of instrumental chemistry did not exist
in an academic environment before this period,
in spite of the fact that some remarkable chemists
of the time used to give classes. Few students had
access to the practice of chemistry, through these
professors' private laboratories. At the beginning
of the nineteenth century, the first chemistry
laboratories started to appear, with Goettingen,
J.N. Von Fuchs, Dobereiner, N.W. Fischer and
Liebig `s. “Liebig `s laboratory-oriented teaching
methods stand out among this group because his
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