A new perspective on chemistry foundation level students laboratory skill development using reciprocal peer-teaching, laboratory simulations, and Practical Skills Portfolio (PSP) during COVID-19 and post-pandemic in 2024

Foundation (L0) programs as an entry to degree courses are offered in many UK universities. With chemistry, it is important to develop practical skills as students progress from school to university (in this manuscript, the term school is used to mean either school or college in the UK). Investigating the development and confidence of students’ laboratory practical skills during COVID-19, 2020 (cohort A) as compared to the 2024 (cohort B) is the subject of interest, in particular finding out what laboratory skills students gained from school and how they improved through the course using different laboratory teaching styles. The teaching styles used were reciprocal peer-teaching, laboratory simulations, and Practical Skills Portfolio (PSP). During COVID-19, dry-labs replaced the Face-to-Face (F2F) laboratory sessions. This study used questionnaires through a mixed methods approach with both quantitative and qualitative questions followed by SPSS and thematic analysis. It was found that due to students entering the course with such a mix of entry chemistry qualifications, they favored differentiated teaching where students would prefer to be taught in two separate groups at their appropriate entry level. Reciprocal peer-teaching was found to be valuable for practical preparation and developing employability skills. The Practical Skills Portfolio was useful to compile a collection of documented skills that could be reflected on for future practical work. Simulations were useful during dry-labs for the preparation of a laboratory session and being able to see actual practical details, although students did not develop hands-on practical skills, and it was discovered that students preferred actual F2F laboratory classes. F2F laboratory teaching led to higher confidence levels for cohort B in comparison to cohort A. Evidence from this research confirmed that students from cohort A (2020) agreed that nothing could replace a hands-on laboratory.