Factors that affect students' positive and negative perceptions of chemistry

CHED 144

Nicole M Grove, nmgrove@purdue.edu and Mary B. Nakhleh, mnakhleh@purdue.edu. Department of Chemistry, Purdue University, 560 Oval Dr, West Lafayette, IN 47907
Chemistry is often perceived as being disliked by everyone except for those that major in chemistry. In this study, we looked at the factors that affected students' perceptions of chemistry in a freshman general chemistry course at a large Midwestern university. A Likert style survey was given to all students in the course asking them to respond to 29 statements about chemistry, with 1700 students responding. Follow-up interviews were then conducted with 8 students to discuss their responses to the survey. Results show that students don't necessarily think negatively about any particular aspect of the course, but they had a great amount of difficulty in assuming responsibility for their learning. This and other findings will be discussed in our presentation.
 

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The 235th ACS National Meeting, New Orleans, LA, April 6-10, 2008