Motivation helps drive students to success in general chemistry, and active learning environments with social interactions has consistently shown to improve motivation. However, analyzing student outcomes in an interactive environment is best done by considering students not as isolated units but as working together and influencing each other.…

This qualitative study investigated the experience of a cohort of students exposed consecutively to two substantially different environments in their General Chemistry Laboratory programme. To this end, the first semester in a traditional expository programme was followed by a semester in a cooperative, problem-based, multi-week format. The focus…