1. Presented by Nial Harding
nharding@csir.co.za
Harmonising Analytical Chemistry Curriculum Workshop
Birchwood Hotel, Johannesburg
12-13th
August 2011
A future perspective on
Analytical Chemistry

2. Students of engineering may learn the
new tools and theories of engineering,
but their successful application
requires new methods of management.
In other words, the purpose of a school
should be to prepare students for the
future, not for the past.
W. Edwards Deming, The New Economics

3. Analytical Chemistry within the CSIR
• CSIR consists of a number of business units
• With the exception of some laboratories,
analysts work in an “island”.
• The CSIR Analytical Chemistry Forum was
formed to provide a platform for discussion
and development of Analytical Chemistry
within CSIR.

4. CSIR Analytical Chemistry Forum’s
areas of focus
• Development of a database containing information pertaining
to human, instrumental and software resources available
within CSIR
• Development of training and mentoring programs within CSIR
• Adoption of ISO 17025 as the quality standard throughout
CSIR analytical laboratories.
• Promotion of networking within and without CSIR

5. THE ART OF BEING HUMAN
• Words, their
meaning, their
connotations &
assumptions.
• It all starts with
you. Only you can
make a difference.
• Dunning-Kruger
effect. Cognitive
bias.
It all starts with YOU!
Leo Buscaglia

6. COMPETENCE
KNOWLEDGE SKILLS
ATTITUDE
+

7. KNOWLEDGE
• Knowledge is as
vast as the ocean.
• Advances are made
daily.
• How do we create
a curriculum that
keeps pace with
developments?
Credo Mutwa

8. Edward Deming
• Present style of management
a modern invention – a prison
created by the way people
interact.
• Afflicts all aspects of our lives
– government, industry,
education & healthcare.
• Competition = destruction.
• Transformation to a systems
approach.
• Route to transformation is
Profound Knowledge.

9. Profound Knowledge
• Appreciation for a system.
• Knowledge about variation
• Theory of knowledge.
• Psychology.

10. SKILLS
• The pen and the
sword are not
separate.
• We train the
body to educate
the mind and a
healthy mind
will teach the
body.
Gansho Inoue

11. EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING
• Changing Attitudes & Behaviors
Through Experiential Activity.
• Action Learning: Resolving Real
Problems in Real Time.
• Computer-Based Simulations:
Principles of Engagement.
• Reflective Practice: Learning from
Real-World Experience.

12. “Learning is the process whereby
knowledge is created through
transformation of experience”*
• Effective learning is both abstract and
concrete.
• Concrete + abstract = higher-order of
understanding.
• Having an experience is not the same as
learning from it!
• Action and thought have to be linked!
• Requires debriefing/reviewing/processing or
mining.
*Experiential Learning, David Kolb (1983)

13. SAFETY THROUGH
EMPOWERMENT OF PEOPLE
• One day process developed within
AECI.
• Originally developed to improve safety
statistics by educating employees to
take responsibility for their own
safety.
• Has since been used for team building,
improving communication and change
resilience training.

14. THINKING & PHILOSOPHY
• Education & science –
original meanings lost in
fog of too much respect
& mystery.
• Science is simply the
method we use to try
postulate a minimum
set of assumptions that
can explain, through
straightforward logical
derivation, the existence
of many phenomena of
nature.
Eliyahu Goldratt
The Goal

15. Goldratt continued ….
• On creating/expanding an existing science:
– “What is needed is the courage to face
inconsistencies & to avoid running away from
them just because “that’s the way it was
always done”.
• On the meaning of education:
– “I sincerely believe that the only way we learn
is through our deductive process. Presenting
us with final conclusions is not a way that we
learn”.
– “Our text books should not present us with a
series of end results but rather a plot that
enables the reader to go through the deduction
process himself”.

16. Ask a Question
Do Background
Research
Construct a
Hypothesis
Test with Experiment
Analyze results &
Draw Conclusions
Report Results
Think!
Try again!
Hypothesis is True Hypothesis is False

18. • Main focus on Analytical Sciences.
– Skoog & West provides a good starting point for
fundamentals & instrumental techniques.
• Emphasis on Thinking Skills:
– Critical thinking - Socratic approach?
– Lateral thinking – De Bono
– Planning tools, WBS, Gantt, CPM.
• Working knowledge of inorganic, organic &
physical chemistry.
• Quality:
– ISO 17025 & GLP standards
– Concepts on validation
• Computer Science:
– Working knowledge of networking protocols
– Database design & management.
– Introduction to LIMS, purpose & function

19. SUGGESTED READING
• Leo Buscaglia, Living, Loving & Learning.
• Abraham Maslow, Toward a Psychology of
Being.
• Edward Deming, Out of the Crisis and The New
Economics.
• Eliyahu Goldrat, The Goal.
• Mel Silberman, The Handbook of Experiential
Learning.