“Descriptive” Pedagogy for Inorganic Chemistry Laboratory: A Teaching Perspective from Jordan

A descriptive pedagogy is implemented for teaching a standalone inorganic chemistry laboratory course. The pedagogy overcomes laboratory teaching challenges in Jordan, including the limited receipt of funding to cover laboratory logistics. The implemented pedagogy reinforces lecture course concepts using a descriptive science method rather than using physical methods while remaining aligned with the institutional learning outcomes. Each experiment allowed the qualitative investigation of the apparent color in a pair of relevant complexes. The implementation process involved dividing students into two main groups. Each group was assigned one complex of the pair, and then, it was divided into subgroups of two students. The subgroups prepared the assigned complexes using affordable setups. They were characterized by simple chemical and instrumental techniques. The laboratory activities ensure that students work in groups and their communication skills are improved by oral discussions of the results at the subgroup and main group levels. The pedagogy stimulates students’ deductive reasoning skills to justify visual observations. The verification of a compound’s identity engages students in various methods of data collection, data analysis, and error analysis. The proposed pedagogy is pertinent to institutions facing comparable circumstances.