Assessing the effectiveness of chemistry-based practical training to deepen understanding of classroom lectures

Abstract

Laboratory training courses in post-secondary education essentially build a foundation for creative activities and enable students to acquire data interpretation and critical thinking skills. In pharmaceutical sciences, these practical courses cultivate the scientific thinking required of pharmacists. At Meijo University, the Instrumental Analysis Practicum, introduced in 2023, allowed students to engage in spectroscopic analysis, including nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and infrared absorption spectrometry (IR). Tests were administered before and after the practical program in 2024 to measure increased student understanding of NMR and IR after classroom lectures. The effectiveness of this approach was assessed by analyzing pre-test and post-test scores and conducting text-mining and a customer satisfaction (CS) analysis on student surveys. The results indicated a distinct level of educational effectiveness in aligning classroom lectures with practical training, thereby contributing to the development of pharmacists with a robust scientific mindset.