A Review of Controlling the Laboratory Activity in Chemistry according to Chemists’ Views

Abstract

The concept of control is central in all completed activities. The lack of the control activity may cause the deterioration of the activity regulation. The main purpose of the current study is searching out the indications that may help identifying “possible control learning” in chemistry education. The participants of this study are 7 chemists from 5 different universities in France who were all recommended by their colleagues as “experienced researchers” in different areas of chemistry. The data were collected by using semi-structured interviews related to the concept of control in chemistry. Results have been categorized under the following five different categories: the characteristics of activity control, three different cases that participants experienced during the results of activity control, the controlled components in experiments, cognitive resources used for activity control, and views related to control learning. The findings of this study may contribute both to determine the place of control learning in chemistry education and develop new chemistry education programs.