Research Interests – Dr. Justin M. Shorb
Chemistry Education: Laboratory Curriculum Development and Eye-Tracking
Evaluation of Learning
For more details and to see who works in the Shorb Group, see Dr. Shorb’s website
(link to http://shortlinks.hope.edu/shorb ).
Much in Chemistry Education is divided into Research and into Practice. The two
projects in this group try to dovetail these two areas into each other. The
Laboratory Curriculum Development work begins with a foundation of literaturebased reforms that can be used to improve student learning and engagement, while
also being intentional about meaningful assessment within our classes. This leads to
research publications that inform approaches to teaching at other institutions and
improves the quality of our laboratory experiences here at Hope College. Inevitably,
we will endeavor to incorporate modern technology into our curriculum. However,
it is important that we have the tools necessary to take advantage of this medium so
that it enhances both the teaching of laboratory activities from a student
perspective, and also the ability for instructors to provide meaningful assessments
and feedback. This Eye-Tracking Research starts with educational theories about
attention and mental processing to analyze how students connect various chemistry
concepts simply by observing the order and duration by which they look at them.
Laboratory Curriculum Development
Dr. Shorb’s role as First-Year Laboratory Coordinator at Hope College allows for
hands-on experience for research students in his group to design laboratories, test
experiments, and design assessments that will be used in the classroom. These
tested improvements inform the decisions the Department of Chemistry makes in
how to most effectively teach their laboratory courses. The primary research goals
for this project are to design a framework for evaluating and revising the General
Chemistry Laboratories which includes current research in:
• What activities motivate students to pursue science?
• What activities encourage critical thinking about the underlying chemistry?
• How should pre-lab exercises prepare students for more rigorous
experiments and instruments with higher learning curves?
• How can we leverage group work and shared data sets to enhance student
learning and develop their professional skills needed in the workforce?
• What pedagogies are most appropriate for learning critical writing skills?
Using the expansive literature in all of these sub-disciplines (or really, crossdisciplinary literature from educational psychology, to education research, to
science education research, and cognitive psychology), we elucidate a set of criteria
that can be used to continuously evaluate the quality of the educational experience
for students and give constructive feedback for improvement. This involves
development of statistical methods, novel laboratory assessment tools, and new
laboratory curricula.
Eye-Tracking Evaluation of Learning
Inspired by the framework for evaluation that is being developed to improve the
laboratory curriculum, a need has arisen for rigorous assessment of new learning
tools, such as online systems. The use of eye-tracking technology to evaluate the
potency for websites to market to their intended audiences is not new. Many
marketing companies use this sort of technology, and there exists an extensive
amount of research into “Goal Conversion” – trying to convert visitors to a website
into buyers of a product, for instance. These are targeted interventions with very
measurable one-dimensional results: purchased or did not purchase, for instance. In
the case of assessing student learning, however, we want to be able to ascertain the
level of student engagement, their ability to tie smaller ideas into big picture ideas,
and to see if they are recognizing the usefulness of various types of representations
used in chemistry.
This work builds off of the research into Novice vs. Expert studies that have been
done in chemistry education research. There are various instruments and tests that
can be used to distinguish between an expert in the field of chemistry and someone
who is still learning. By understanding these underlying differences in how a
student engages with material presented to them can help provide meaningful
feedback to help them to accelerate toward an expert-level of understanding. Eyetracking provides a novel avenue for this type of study, although there is currently
no way to quantifiably compare two different eye-tracking trajectories. Research in
this group works toward using principle component analysis
(eigenvalue/eigenvector analysis) to design analysis protocols that can be used to
inform assessment and evaluation of new learning tools. Immediate areas of focus
are on improving the use of technology in the laboratory by assisting in design of
online materials, and in training for the use of complex instrumentation in the
laboratory.