Reflections on Teaching a Multicultural Student Group on a Chemistry Laboratory Course

Eeva-Leena Tuominen (eeva-leena.tuominen@tamk.fi) student on English as a Tool for Teaching course at JAMK, Teacher Education College

The course in question is a chemistry laboratory course in the English-language degree programme intended for second-year students. The course is held in the new laboratory facilities available as of autumn 2010. The aim is to teach the students how to conduct practical exercises in the laboratory in a proper and safe manner. The laboratory exercises comprise neutralisation titration, water analysis, heavy metal and ion analysis, and measurements of organic solvents. The students have completed the basic theoretical studies of chemistry before entering the course.

 There are two teachers teaching the course, one in charge and the other an ancillary teacher. The number of students varies yearly; the maximum number is 35. Approximately half of the students are international students and half are Finnish. The students come from all over the world; in this year’s group there were students from Russia, Germany, China and several African countries, among others.

 The course consists of lectures and practical laboratory exercises. The theory lectures deal with the regulations of chemical law as well as the safe use of chemicals and the handling of wastes in a laboratory. In addition, the students are instructed in the correct use of a range of equipment from simple glassware to the most common instruments used in a laboratory.

One of the problems in the theory lectures has been the fact that some of the students fail to attend the lectures regularly, and thus miss many important aspects introduced during the course. This, in turn, may lead to dangerous situations while working in the laboratory. It would therefore be necessary to have a compulsory attendance requirement on the course. Absence from the lectures could be compensated for by some extra tasks to make sure that the student has learnt the issues covered. Another way to increase student attendance would be to make the lectures more interesting by adding some interactive elements, student-initiated materials and independent assignments, for example.

In addition to a good command of the subject-matter, it is important that the teacher also has a sufficient knowledge of English, especially in the theory lectures. In the laboratory it is easier to explain things as the group is smaller, and word meanings can be negotiated in interaction with the students, but in the lectures the teacher is even more dependent on his or her language skills. This can, of course, be addressed by in-service training and active use of the language in both work-related and other contexts.

It would be beneficial if the teacher knew the students before starting work in the laboratory. Every student is an individual, but there are certain patterns of behavior that people coming from the same cultural background share. Thus it would at least be good to know where the students come from, so the teacher can familiarize him- or herself with the potential cultural differences among the students. For instance, the forms of individual supervision in the laboratory can turn out to be problematic: how does the student receive advice and feedback? What kind of physical distance, eye contact, and tone of speech are appropriate? Furthermore, students coming from traditionally patriarchal societies may find it difficult to take in advice and requests from female students or teachers. Sometimes such routine tasks as dishwashing can be a problem in the laboratory – some students have even refused to wash the dishes, as they have felt that it is not the kind of work appropriate to men. The teacher should be able to deal with these situations so that the tasks are done but the students do not feel offended. On the other hand, the students also need to understand that the same rules apply to everyone.

Students coming from different cultures also have differing conceptions of time. They may often be late for the lectures and the laboratory classes, and as a result miss the beginning, when the day’s tasks are introduced. This, together with poor preparation for the laboratory exercises, has the effect that they a more likely fail in their laboratory analyses. One way of making sure that the students have prepared well for the exercises could be to give them some preparatory tasks related to the work instructions. The students could for example be asked to translate the instructions into their own languages.

It would be important to teach basic procedures such as pipeting and the use of burets and analytical balances before starting the actual analyses in the laboratory. This would be best done in small groups, as it would then be easy to see immediately if a student has not understood or learnt a given procedure, and they could then be instructed individually. This would also have the advantage that the teacher would not need to show the basic working methods to each student separately. It is, after all, a well-known fact that many students are reluctant to ask the teacher if there is something they are not sure about, and may inadvertently make mistakes.

The students work in pairs in the laboratory. In some of the Finnish-language degree programmes the pairs are assigned by drawing lots, which has the advantage that the students learn to do intensive work with people they do not know well from before. On this course, however, the students are allowed to choose their partners, and it is evident that they often choose a person of the same gender and preferably the same cultural background as themselves. The pairs have a shared drawer equipped with a lock, containing the laboratory utensils, and there is only one key to the drawer. The students are given their own samples, but they usually make the analyses in phase with one another. It would be interesting to see how well a multicultural group accomplished their work if the pairs were chosen by drawing lots: would there be any cultural clashes, or would the work be more productive?

In order to avoid any problems and misunderstandings, the basic rules and instructions for the use of the laboratories must be clearly spelt out both in Finnish and in English. It is important to define who is responsible for the updating of the safety instructions, including the English-language instructions. In addition, all the staff members should have a sufficient knowledge of English to ensure that there is always English-language support available.

In conclusion, a multicultural teaching context poses a number of challenges for the teacher, not just in terms of teaching content, but also in terms of communication, interaction, and work safety. The role of an ancillary teacher has offered an excellent opportunity to observe and practise meeting a multicultural teaching group, and to reflect on one’s own perspective to teaching and developing a course with international students. The has brought along with it an awareness of the importance of self-development with respect to understanding different cultures as well as enhancing proficiency in the English language.