Using Undergraduate Facilitators for Active Learning in Organic Chemistry: A Preparation Course and Outcomes of the Experience Hannah E. Jardine † and Lee A. Friedman* ,‡ † Department of Teaching, Learning, Policy, and Leadership and ‡ Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, United States * S Supporting Information ABSTRACT: In this study, we describe a course to educate and prepare undergraduate “facilitators” for small group problem solving sessions in a large, first semester, introductory undergraduate organic chemistry course. We then explore the outcomes of the facilitator experience for one cohort of facilitators through qualitative analysis of written reflections, surveys, and field notes. Our findings suggest that the course achieved its goals of providing facilitators with effective teaching techniques and reinforcing content knowledge, and it created a forum for the facilitators to provide feedback to each other and to the course instructor. Furthermore, the course catalyzed the development of professional skills, enhanced metacognitive abilities, reinforced the benefits of active learning, and exposed facilitators to educational literature. These findings are noteworthy because they demonstrate the various potential benefits for undergraduates that facilitate active learning in large chemistry courses. KEYWORDS: Second-Year Undergraduate, Upper-Division Undergraduate, Organic Chemistry, Collaborative/Cooperative Learning, TA Training/Orientation I ntroductory organic chemistry requires students to learn a great deal of difficult content in a short amount of time; it also requires a different set of mental and study skills, such as qualitative problem solving, that prove challenging for under- graduates to master. 1 For these reasons, many students are affected by anxiety and negative perceptions of organic chemistry, 2 which may discourage students, especially women and students from underrepresented minority groups, from continuing in science studies. 3 Introducing active learning into the organic chemistry course may help to improve student success and attitudes. 4 Cooperative learning and problem solving approaches to teaching organic chemistry have been successfully incorporated into large classes to help students develop the critical and complex thinking skills required for success. 5,6 Organic chemistry students who experience student centered instruction and work in small groups may demonstrate significant improvements in performance, retention, and attitudes about the course. 5,7 Successful implementation of active learning into large lecture organic chemistry courses requires more resources, especially human resources, than traditional lecturing. In some cases, undergraduate learning assistants (ULAs) have been used to facilitate small group problem solving in large lecture chemistry courses. 5,8,9 The students enrolled in these courses benefit from the increased interaction that the ULAs provide. Students in the large course are able to gain valuable insight about course content and learning strategies by interacting with peers that have recently taken the course, an opportunity that might not be possible through interactions with the instructor or even graduate teaching assistants. In addition to benefits for students in courses supported by ULAs, the ULA experience also provides cognitive, personal, and instrumental benefits to the ULAs themselves. 10 ULAs may develop leadership and professional skills such as communica- tion and self-confidence. 10 ULAs may also form a supportive community as they discuss their experiences throughout a course. 7 Additionally, teaching course content to other students may help ULAs develop a deeper understanding of the material, 11 which may lead to performance gains for ULAs in subsequent coursework. 8 The ULA experience may include organized training in pedagogy and content to both prepare ULAs to work effectively with students and to support their professional develop- ment. 12,13 Although the literature includes several models for ULA training in different undergraduate science contexts, 12,13 there is not much in the literature about ULA preparation specifically designed for ULAs in organic chemistry courses. Therefore, we describe our course, Pedagogy and Instruction in Chemistry, developed to educate and prepare ULAs, whom we refer to as “facilitators,” for problem solving sessions in a large Received: August 22, 2016 Revised: March 22, 2017 Article pubs.acs.org/jchemeduc © XXXX American Chemical Society and Division of Chemical Education, Inc. A DOI: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.6b00636 J. Chem. Educ. XXXX, XXX, XXX-XXX