SKILL DEVELOPMENT IN EXPERIMENTAL COURSES

Experimental courses ofer a good opportunity to work with competences, promotng the incorporaton of strategies oriented towards motvatng students to actvely involve in the learning process, promotng refexive learning and developing generic skills. This study presents diferent ways of developing and evaluatng some important general skills, setle on four specifc objectves: • to increase student motvaton using samples of potental interest to students and explaining real-live applicaton of their samples analyses; • to assist students’ self-regulaton and learning autonomy by using the portolio; • to promote group work through experiments in pairs and small-group discussions; • to develop communicaton skills through small-group discussions and oral presentatons. Results show that the type of sample used and real-life applicaton has important infuence on motvaton. The portolio is a good tool to promote refecton and to evaluate both specifc and generic skills in experimental courses, the dynamics of a laboratory course permit students to develop their group-work and communicatve skills, and peer evaluatons both improve students’ communicaton skills and promote metacognitve refecton. Finally, the project demonstrates that it is possible to train students in general skills using the specifc course content and that the incorporaton of partcipatory methodologies encourages students to become actvely involved in the teaching-learning process.

In today's world, where knowledge not only increases more rapidly every day but also becomes obsolete very quickly, it is essental for professionals to be able to constantly update their knowledge and adapt it to new and rapidly changing situatons.They must learn how to learn, and they must learn throughout their lives (Black, McCormick, James & Pedder, 2006;Cornford, 2002;Crebert, 2000;Rawson, 2000;Simons, 1989;Wingate & London, 2007;Zeegers & Martn, 2001).
Universites must accept the relatvity of knowledge and assume the challenge of ofering their students training that allowing them to functon in the environment of uncertainty and complexity that characterises the knowledge society (Barber, 2000;Fullan & Ballew, 2001;Hargreaves, 2003;Monereo & Pozo, 2003).
In this context, one of the most important changes promoted by the EHEA is a change in teachers' and students' roles (Barr & Tagg, 1995;Cañado, 2010;Sursock & Smidt, 2010).The learning process is now considered a collaboratve task between students and teachers in which students must be thoughtul apprentces (meaning that they must take responsibility for their own learning processes) and teachers must become counsellors or guides (Bienefeld & Almqvist, 2010;Boekaerts, 1997Boekaerts, , 1999;;Corno, 1992;Morales Vallejo, 2008;Shepard, 2000).
It is not surprising that learning ability is one of the most important general skills.To develop this skill, teachers must provide students with tools and areas for refecton that help them to be accountable for the development of their own learning processes so that they can self-regulate and become autonomous learners (Brockbank & McGill, 2007;Kolb & Kolb, 2005;Parker & Heywood, 2013).
For this reason, academic insttutons should promote training policies for their teachers that provide them with specifc training in teaching skills and help them to advance in their professional careers (Bricall, 2000;Torra et al., 2013).
The University of Barcelona's teacher-training program ofers a Master's in University Lecturing for New Lecturers, in which young teachers begin a process of professionalisaton that will expand and improve throughout their academic careers.In this inital process, they are mentored by senior teachers with extensive teaching and research experience who advise, guide, and motvate them to innovate in their classes (Amador Campos, Carrasco Calvo, Díaz Álvarez, González Fernández, Gracenea Zugarramurdi, Marzo Ruiz, L. et al., 2012).
In this learning context, as a result of the collaboratve process between one of the young lecturers and his mentor, a project was developed to incorporate some general skills development into the University of Barcelona's Basic Analytcal Chemistry Laboratory course.The project was advised by the University of Barcelona's Insttute of Educaton Sciences (ICE) and was launched in 2011-2012.
The present work describes this innovaton experience and analyses the impact of its various components on student motvaton and learning results.

Developing general skills: an innovaton project of the Basic Analytcal Chemistry Laboratory
Experimental courses ofer an ideal framework to teach skills because they acclimate students to the professional practces that they will need to develop in the future (Baird, 1990;Bybee, 2000;Graham Gibbs & Simpson, 2004;Hofstein & Luneta, 1982, 2004;Okebukola & Ogunniyi, 1984;Zeidler, 1997).In such courses, students must independently apply their previous knowledge to planning and developing diferent actvites proposed by the teacher.These actvites allow students to achieve signifcant, profound, and constructve learning.Moreover, the reduced number of students in these courses' groups makes these courses optmal curricular areas for the integrated development of the skills needed to become a good professional.
The Basic Analytcal Chemistry Laboratory is a frst cycle compulsory subject performed in the second year of the chemistry degree.To take this course, it is necessary to pass the Applied Chemistry II course (to learn how to work in a laboratory) and the theoretcal course Analytcal Chemistry.The subject have 4.5 ECTS that corresponds to 112.5 h (60 h atendance, 20 h tutored and 32.5 h of autonomous work) it was performed during 3 weeks, 4 hours per day, in groups of approximately 30 students (25 students during the term in which the innovaton project was conducted), distributed among three sub-groups corresponding to three teachers.The three teachers have enough experience in teaching this course even when they have diferent level of experience.In the laboratory, students must apply their knowledge of the quanttatve analysis of majority and minority components using classical determinatons, ttratons and gravimetries explained in the theoretcal course Analytcal Chemistry, which the students take prior to the laboratory course.
The development of this course required students' contnuous interacton with their classmates and the teacher.The process began when the teacher proposed the determinaton of the concentraton of a compound in a sample.The proposed determinaton was selected depending on each student's characteristcs and his positon in the learning process.Some of the proposed analyses were determining water hardness, determining the presence of actve chlorine in a domestc bleach botle, determining the presence of phosphoric acid in a cola drink, and determining the concentraton of copper in a 10-centme euro coin (89% Cu, 5% Al, 5% Zn and 1% Sn).
To perform these tasks, students searched the literature for diferent procedures to develop their assigned determinatons and selected the most appropriate procedure in terms of safety, reagent availability, and quality of results.The selected procedure was then discussed with the teacher, and agreement was reached about what procedure to follow.Next, each student performed the assigned task and obtained results.The student was required to evaluate the results and to compare them with the results obtained by classmates.Finally, each student showed his results and conclusions to the teacher, who then discussed the results, evaluated the student's work, and assigned the student a new determinaton.All this procedure was registered in a notebook which was to be performed in the atendance tme in the laboratory.Additonally, during the autonomous work tme, the students have to answer questons about this determinaton in the notebook.
The course has an inital presentaton session and two seminars performed in the frst day (2 hours).Some determinatons were performed in specifc days due to material availability and its corresponding seminaries were performed the day before with the students that will perform these determinatons (30 minutes).In general, the determinatons have not specifc tmings and are the students' responsibility to distribute the tme for the realizaton of the diferent determinatons.Finally, the last day is fully dedicated to perform the oral presentatons.
The assessment of the course was contnuous during all the laboratory work.Mainly, the assessment takes into account the understanding of the determinatons, the evaluaton of the results and the soluton of the problems appeared during the development of these determinatons.This was observed by the discussions with the teacher, the answers to the questons and the revision of laboratory notebooks.Also, the oral presentaton, attude and tme distributon was tacked into account for the assessment.During the discussion with the teacher feedback was provided to students.This feedback consists on a formatve assessment about how this determinaton was performed and the aspects that needs to be improved for the next determinatons that were selected to maximize these aspects.
Given the possibilites ofered by this course, diferent actvites were incorporated into the teaching programme that would permit the development and evaluaton of some general skills included in the degree curriculum (Sayós, Amador & Pagès, 2012); these skills are considered important to students' future development.To reach this goal, a teaching innovaton project was designed with the following specifc objectves: • To increase student motvaton and consequently to involve students in their own learning processes through actvites that are as meaningful and functonal as possible.
• To assist students in self-regulaton and learning autonomy, encouraging them to conduct metacognitve refectons that ensure their personal control over knowledge acquisiton and the learning process.
• To promote group work, for two reasons: frst, the interacton that occurs in collaboratve actvites among students is a good strategy for improving learning results; second, to respond to the demands of a labour market that is increasingly interested in organising work groups that generate synergies to achieve beter results than those obtained by the sum of separate individual capacites.
• To contribute to the development of students' communicatve skills.Given the importance of informaton properly fow between professionals and between the workplace and society, this course aimed to improve both oral and interpersonal communicaton.Good oral communicaton must allow students to be efectve in transmitng ideas, thoughts, and feelings in various communicatve contexts, such as conversatonal situatons, group actvites, and public presentatons in front of large audiences.Interpersonal communicaton facilitates the establishment of positve relatonships among people through actve listening and discussion ability.

DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH 2.1 Changes introduced in the course
The actons implemented to reach the expected learning outcomes as a functon of the objectves described in the innovaton project were the following: • To increase student motvaton, samples of potental interest to the students were chosen.Explanaton of the real-life utlity of these samples analyses was emphasised, and students were encouraged to bring and use their own samples to easily relate the analysis to their own life experiences.
• To promote the refectons of students on their own learning and that students conduct their selfregulatory processes, as an essental step towards autonomy, the use of portolios or learning folders was analyzed.The functon of this actvity was twofold.First, students were required to present evidence of their learning processes, explaining their decisions and strategies that led to the obtained results.This process was used to prompt students to refect, self-evaluate, and propose future improvements.Second, in additon to this formatve assessment, learning portolios allowed students to perform accreditaton assessments because they contained evidence of the level that each student achieved.Therefore, by using the portolio, it was possible to evaluate both student and teacher perspectves.
• To strengthen group work, some learning situatons were proposed in which students had to collaborate with classmates, organise themselves, and make decisions to reach common goals that would improve the quality of their results.First, complex experiments to be performed in pairs were proposed.Second, small-group discussions were organised.
• Finally, work on communicatve skills was performed through student partcipaton in small-group discussions and oral presentatons.The frst learning actvity mainly focused on interpersonal communicaton.Students were required to assert themselves in discussions with classmates, to consider the contributons of others, and to reach agreements.The second actvity involved the instrumental components of oral expression: forming a clear and structured discourse that is adapted to the communicatve context, paying atenton to the reactons of the audience, properly using nonverbal language, and ensuring that the message reached the audience without interference and in a fuent and understandable way.
The general methodology followed in this course was the same than previously but introducing the modifcatons above mentoned.These modifcatons lead to change the general development of the subject in a more partcipatve course, with more discussions and interactons between the students and teachers and also promotng the refexion of the students about his own learning.This makes that some of the tme that students normally spend in the realizaton of the determinatons was used in the diferent discussions and explanatons as well as in the preparaton of the diferent actvites.

Instruments for the collecton and evaluaton of the results
The instruments, techniques, and methods of evaluaton used to assess the achievement of the objectves and students' learning results were as follows.

Forms
Two forms (Tables 1 and 2) were used to evaluate objectves 1 (motvaton) and 4 (communicatve skills).In Form 1, through open questons, comments, and closed questons with ratng scales, students were asked which practces they liked more or less and the reasons for their ratngs of those practces.Form 2 implemented the peer assessment, in which students were asked to evaluate diferent formal and content aspects of their classmates' oral communicatons.6 5 4 3 2 1 The presentaton was well organised: (structure, contents, including all sectons) 6 5 4 3 2 1 The presentaton was adjusted to the tme allowed: (total tme, adequate tme for the diferent sectons) 6 5 4 3 2 1

The teacher's direct observatons
This procedure was applied to evaluate objectves 3 and 4. The teacher's direct observaton of the group work (objectve 3) took into account the commitment with the common objectves, the organisaton and planning of the work, the distributon of roles, the method of decision making, and the general operaton of the group.Oral presentatons provided evidence with which the students' communicatve skills could be evaluated (objectve 4).Clear expositon, the precision of vocabulary, the use of proper registraton, argumentatve ability, the dynamics of the discussions, and willingness to value and accept the opinions of colleagues and the obtained consensus were all evaluated.

Portolios or learning folders
Portolios were conceived as learning tools to understand and monitor development as well as collecton of evidences on efort, it can be defned as a collecton of materials or evidences selected to show, refect and evaluate a learning process during a period of tme (Cano, 2005).One of the classifcatons of portolios takes into account two diferent dimensions, if are assessment or formatve and if are mandated by external requirements or self-directed for personal use, leading to four types of portolios: the dossier(used to evaluate a subjects or competences degree by the university),the training (used to promote the refecton in the students about his own learning), the refectve (used as a personal initatve to show or demonstrate the skills acquired) and the personal development portolio(used for personal evaluaton and refecton of the professional growth in long-term process) (Smith & Tillema, 2003).For this study, the training portolio was selected in a showcase modality.This selecton was performed because the main purpose of this innovaton is promote the selfregulaton and learning autonomy.Also, using only one selected proof, it is necessary that students perform this selecton in a refectve way, producing only one page portolio that permits focus students' tme in the selecton, and refecton not in writng long materials.
Learning portolios were used to evaluate objectve 2 (self-regulaton and learning autonomy).In their learning portolios, the students were required to select a single determinaton as the most signifcant evidence of their learning.They were required to describe that evidence, explain the reasons it was relevant, and refect on potental changes that they could make in that determinaton if they were required to repeat it.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The results obtained in the diferent actvites, grouped according to the specifc objectves, are shown below.

Objectve 1
To study the increase in student motvaton, the results obtained through the questons on Form 1 were analysed.
Figure 1 shows the results of the analysis of the frst queston on Form 1 (Table 1).Specifcally, Figure 1 shows the number of tmes that each determinaton was selected as one that was liked more or less.The determinatons were classifed into two categories depending on whether their real-life applicatons were explained during their introductons (lef) or not (right).

Figure 1. Answer frequency of the determinatons that students liked more or less when their real-life applicatons were explained (lef) or not explained (right)
The results have important variability, but the determinatons for which real-life applicatons were explained had more positve answers (determinatons that students liked more) 65%, whereas the determinatons for which real-life applicatons were not explained showed a larger number of answers corresponding to less-liked determinatons 61%.
Following the analysis of Form 1, the second queston asked students, in an open-ended manner, to specify the reasons why they had stated that they liked certain practces more or less.All of the comments can be grouped according to the following factors.
• Determinatons that students like more have the following qualites: • Permit students to apply and consolidate theoretcal knowledge obtained in other courses • Use samples closer to students' contexts and experiences • Provide knowledge with real-life applicatons • Are interestng and complex in both their executon and calculatons

•
The determinatons that students like less have the following qualites: • Confront students with unsolvable problems • Are long • Have specifc practcal issues related to difcultes in observing the endpoints of some volumetric determinatons.
To summarise, the reasons that explain why a determinaton is liked more by students are related to the use of common samples and an understanding of the relatonship between the determinaton and real life.The arguments provided to justfy why a partcular determinaton is liked less by students are related to difcultes with performance.
Figure 2 shows the results obtained for the remaining questons on Form 1.In these last questons, diferent factors were proposed: the type of sample, the objectve of the determinaton (applicaton to real life), and difcultes encountered in the determinaton's practcal development.Students were asked to evaluate, on a three-level scale, the infuence of these factors on whether they liked the determinatons selected in the frst queston more or less.An additonal queston about the origin of the samples (to reveal which samples were provided by the students) was included.In the last two questons, students were asked about the learning and level of efort required to perform these determinatons.
In the determinatons that were liked more by students, the type of sample is the factor that has the greatest infuence, the objectve is secondary, and the difculty has no infuence.In the determinatons that are less liked by students, the distributon is more centred, with a slight emphasis on difculty (the diferences between populatons were established by Mann-Whitney U tests at 95% confdence level).These results are in accordance with the previous results observed in the free comments queston.
In both cases, for the determinatons that are more and less liked, the resultng learning is high and the efort is medium.This result is found even for those determinatons that, according to the students, present higher difculty.Additonally, it was observed that in most of the cases involving student-provided samples, those samples are the high-infuence factor.
From these results, it is possible to conclude that the proximity of the sample, especially if it is a studentprovided sample, has the highest infuence on motvaton.The explanaton of a determinaton's real-life applicaton also has an infuence, but at a lower level.Finally, difculty hinders motvaton, but it is less important.

Objectve 2
Observatons of students' self-regulaton and autonomy were performed using their portolios or learning folders.
It is important to note that the students experienced considerable difculty in preparing this material because it was the frst tme that they had performed exercises related to the selecton of evidence and self-refecton.Furthermore, the fact that the course was developed in a very short period of tme hampered the assimilaton of the portolio concept, thus increasing the difculty of implementng this concept.
The portolios were writen free-style, and students selected the structure and format.Consequently, the analysis shows that diferent students' personalites are clearly manifested in their portolios, corroboratng some of the laboratory observatons.For example, some portolios were writen formally, whereas others were writen informally.Portolios were writen in either the frst or third person.
The selecton of determinatons as evidence of learning was very diverse.Some students chose to demonstrate that they could perform valid analyses, selectng determinatons in which they did not make any mistakes and their results were correct.Other students selected determinatons that included mistakes to allow the opportunity to refect on the sources of their errors and to propose potental solutons to implement if they were to repeat the determinaton in the future.
In all of the cases, it was possible to observe the satsfactory accomplishment of the objectve of self-refecton in students' learning using the portolio as a learning tool.
Finally, it is interestng to note the character of the portolio as a reliable method for summatve evaluaton.Table 3 presents the students' grades, divided according to the three sub-groups of the course.It can be observed that the marks assigned to the portolio (which were evaluated by the same teacher for all groups) and the global marks assigned for the laboratory (evaluated by the diferent teachers of the sub-groups without knowledge of the portolio marks) statstcally have no diferences at a 95% confdence level (Wilcoxon signed rank test).Therefore, it can be concluded that is possible to conduct a reliable and adjusted evaluaton of the skills developed in a laboratory course through the use of portolios.

Objectve 3
The group work was evaluated by directly observing the teacher during the development of complex determinatons that were performed in pairs.
In general, the development of these collaboratve learning situatons was very easy because each group contained only two persons and the compositon of each group was chosen by the students themselves.In some cases, minor problems appeared due to a lack of knowledge about group dynamics.These problems were solved using solutons or guides that were provided by the teacher who conducted the direct observaton.
The teacher's direct and contnuous observaton of the group throughout the working process allowed him to assess both the end product of the work (through the results obtained and the corresponding discussions) and the process of collaboraton established between the group members.With regard to the collaboraton process, the following aspects were taken into account: task planning and management, the contributons of each group member to the fnal product, and the dynamics established between the students in developing the work.
The small-group discussions ofered additonal opportunites to develop competence in group work and facilitated the development of both linguistc and interpersonal communicatve skills, as discussed in objectve 4.
These groups, which contained a maximum of fve students, provided a relaxed context for pooling problems, discussing these problems, and reaching consensual solutons.The teacher moderated the discussions in an informal way and provided criteria or ideas that students could use.Discussion groups provided an ideal framework to promote refecton and facilitate students' comprehension of the fact that it is easier to solve problems in a collegial way and that problems can be solved in diferent ways, all of which may be correct.
It is especially interestng to note that the idea that a problem can have diferent, correct solutons was difcult for the students to accept.This idea was easier to understand afer peer discussions comparing the diferent individual solutons adopted by diferent students.
As a result, it is possible to afrm that these two learning actvites-experiments performed with peers and small-group discussions-facilitate the acquisiton of specifc knowledge of the course and familiarise students with the dynamics of group work.The advantages derived from collaboraton allowed the students to be more efectve and to achieve higher-quality results.Moreover, direct observaton by the teacher was very helpful to guide and regulate the manner in which students learned these dynamics.It is noteworthy that contnuous and close contact over many days in the laboratory facilitated the integraton of the teacher as an element of the course's routne dynamic.

Objectve 4
The course's contributon to the students' communicatve skills was primarily accomplished through two actons: small-group discussions and oral presentatons.
In the small-group discussions, which were briefy explained in the previous secton, the students felt free to discuss their ideas, results, and solutons.Interventon in these discussions required students to structure their speech and speak with clarity and precision.This exercise also helped students learn how to interact positvely with their classmates and with the teacher through dialogue and to express their opinions assertvely, defending their views and listening to others while considering and valuing all contributons.
The oral presentaton performance required students to employ their communicatve skills and to adapt them to a more formal context.These presentatons, which were previously prepared using the teacher guide and students' own group work, allowed to consider diferent learning styles that had previously emerged in the oral discussions.
During the presentatons, all students had a peer review Form 2 (Table 2), which had a formatve but not a summatve evaluaton character.This form was used to evaluate diferent formal and content-related aspects of the presentatons of the students' classmates.This exercise required the student to refect on his own presentaton and therefore on his own learning.These objectves were transmited to the students.It was also explained that the purpose of the form was to improve the students' own communicatve skills but that it would have no impact on the fnal marks.This allowed the students to have more freedom and to be more honest when completng the forms.The performance of these peer evaluatons required students to focus during their classmates' presentatons, which encouraged their refectons on their own presentatons.
The analysis of the comments contained in the evaluaton forms showed that the students ofered genuine and constructve critcism of their classmates' skills, with useful ideas for improvement in clear and respectul language.These results demonstrate the high utlity of this tool as a method for improving students' communicatve skills and for promptng students' refecton on their own learning process.

CONCLUSIONS
From the analysis of the results obtained, the following conclusions can be made: • The choice of the type of sample proposed to the students for determinaton has a direct infuence on increasing students' motvaton.Therefore, it is important to provide students with interestng samples that are related to their personal experiences and linked to their environments.
• The explanaton of the meaning and utlity of the proposed analysis in real life makes learning more meaningful and functonal, which is also a source of motvaton.
• A portolio or learning folder is an excellent tool to promote refecton, which favours students' selfregulaton and learning autonomy.This tool is also very useful to evaluate a degree's general skills and an experimental course's specifc skills.
• The dynamics of a laboratory course, which involves a close and deep trust relatonship between students and teachers, permits students to easily develop their group-work skills.In the same way, a laboratory course is a good context in which to work on communicatve skills.
• Peer evaluatons, as forms used during oral presentatons, are a good tool to improve students' communicaton skills and to promote metacognitve refecton that will help students to become autonomous learners.
Finally, the project demonstrates that it is possible to train students in general skills through the substantve content of a course and that the incorporaton of partcipatory methodologies in educatonal planning encourages students to become actvely involved in the teaching-learning process and trains them in a way of thinking and actng that allows them to make knowledge their own.
The innovatons implemented in this study were applied in other courses with satsfactory results.It is important to highlight that some students that partcipates in this study ask in advances course to repeat some of the experiences (as the peer review classmates' oral presentaton) because they considered helpful tools to improve their skills.

Table 3 .
Portolio and global marks of the course divided in the three sub-groups