One on the objections to devising new equipment or novel procedures is the cry from some teachers that students will be at a disadvantage because the examiners will not ask questions about that procedure in the exam.
There has to be an overwhelming reason to me for changing a procedure including safety, reducing expenditure, improved classroom management, increasing the efficient use of time, more informative chemistry, gaining more insight to chemical processes and responding to the findings in chemical education research. On our CLEAPSS Helpline we get many enquiries about experiments not going as well as "the book" describes. I also mean by “the book” the suggested Examination Board procedures. In the UK, we have moved to a skill assessment of student's practical ability but the Boards still print out "suggested procedures" which we know at CLEAPSS to have flaws. Flaws that have been there for years and no one addresses.
The indestructible crucible is a case in point.
There has to be an overwhelming reason to me for changing a procedure including safety, reducing expenditure, improved classroom management, increasing the efficient use of time, more informative chemistry, gaining more insight to chemical processes and responding to the findings in chemical education research. On our CLEAPSS Helpline we get many enquiries about experiments not going as well as "the book" describes. I also mean by “the book” the suggested Examination Board procedures. In the UK, we have moved to a skill assessment of student's practical ability but the Boards still print out "suggested procedures" which we know at CLEAPSS to have flaws. Flaws that have been there for years and no one addresses.
The indestructible crucible is a case in point.