Correction: South African physical sciences teachers’ use of formulae and proportion when answering reaction-based stoichiometry calculation questions

Correction for ‘South African physical sciences teachers’ use of formulae and proportion when answering reaction-based stoichiometry calculation questions’ by Angela Elisabeth Stott, Chem. Educ. Res. Pract., 2021, 22, 443–456, DOI: 10.1039/D0RP00291G.

The role of authentic contexts and social elements in supporting organic chemistry students’ interactions with writing-to-learn assignments

Student affect is an important factor in the learning process and may be especially important in gateway courses such as organic chemistry. Students’ recognition of the relevance of the content they are learning and interactions with their peers can support their motivation to learn. Herein, we describe a study focused on how Writing-to-Learn assignments situate organic chemistry content within relevant contexts and incorporate social elements to support positive student interactions with organic chemistry. These assignments incorporate rhetorical elements—an authentic context, role, genre, and audience—to support student interest and demonstrate the relevance of the content. In addition, students engage in the processes of peer review and revision to support their learning. We identified how the authentic contexts and peer interactions incorporated into two Writing-to-Learn assignments supported students’ interactions with the assignments and course content by analyzing student interviews and supported by feedback survey responses. Our results indicate that assignments incorporating these elements can support student affect and result in students’ perceived learning, but that there should be careful consideration of the relevance of the chosen contexts with respect to the interests of the students enrolled in the course and the complexity of the contexts.

“Every little thing that could possibly be provided helps”: Analysis of online first-year chemistry resources using the Universal Design for Learning framework

Rapid advancements in information and communication technologies (ICTs) have afforded numerous variations to traditional chemistry curricula where pedagogical strategies that have been employed have assumed "one-size-fits-all". The translation of print-based...

Student participation in a coastal water quality citizen science project and its contribution to the conceptual and procedural learning of chemistry

The active participation of citizens in scientific research, through citizen science, has been proven successful. However, knowledge on the potential of citizen science within formal chemistry learning, at the conceptual...

Student Success and the High School-University Transition: 100 Years of Chemistry Education Research

The 100th anniversary of the first article (published in 1921) examining student success and the high school to university transition in chemistry provides an excellent opportunity to consider what has...

Towards a theoretically sound measure of chemistry students’ motivation; investigating rank-sort survey methodology to reduce response style bias

Prior research has demonstrated the important role of chemistry students’ affect in academic performance. Likert-scale surveys are the most prevalent tools to measure students’ affect within chemistry education research, however, data collected through a Likert-scale survey may exhibit response style bias which can hinder accurately measuring students’ affect. This study investigates the utility of a novel survey methodology, termed rank-sort survey, in understanding students’ academic motivation in a general chemistry course. Informed by Q methodology, in a rank-sort survey participants rank a set of statements in terms of level of agreement with limits in place on how many items can be assigned a particular rank. In this investigation, a rank-sort survey was developed by using statements from an existing Likert-scale instrument, the Academic Motivation Survey in Chemistry. Data collected from the rank-sort surveys, compared to Likert-scale surveys, showed a better alignment with self-determination theory, the underlying theoretical framework, and a better ability to predict students’ academic performance in chemistry. The study also discusses which surveys in chemistry education research are likely to benefit from adopting a rank-sort approach.

Investigating first-year undergraduate chemistry students’ reasoning with reaction coordinate diagrams when choosing among particulate-level reaction mechanisms

Reaction coordinate diagrams (RCDs) are an important tool used to visualize the energetics of a chemical reaction. RCDs provide information about the kinetics of the reaction, the mechanism by which the reaction occurs, and the relative thermodynamic stability of the molecules in a reaction. Previous research studies have characterized student thinking about chemical kinetics, including their confusion in distinguishing between kinetics and thermodynamics. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 44 students enrolled in a second-semester, first-year undergraduate chemistry course to elicit students’ ideas about surface features of RCDs and to examine how students connect those surface features to features of particulate-level reaction mechanisms. Students were provided both a gas-phase reaction and its accompanying RCD, and then they were asked to choose the particulate-level reaction mechanism that best corresponded to both the reaction and the RCD from among several possible particulate-level reaction mechanisms. Students were asked to explain their reasoning throughout the interview. Findings include students who chose the correct mechanism with appropriate reasoning, as well as students who chose the correct mechanism yet still expressed inaccurate ideas related to the surface features of RCDs and the concepts encoded within them. Students struggled to explain and reason with surface features such as peaks, valleys, and peak height. Moreover, students frequently found it difficult to identify meaningful connections between these surface features, the stoichiometry of the reaction, and the steps in a reaction mechanism. In addition, many students failed to mention important features of RCDs when describing their reasoning about the connections between particulate-level reaction mechanisms and RCDs. The implications for incorporating these research findings into teaching practices in first-year undergraduate chemistry contexts are discussed.

Investigating high school chemistry teachers’ assessment item generation processes for a solubility lab

Designing high school chemistry assessments is a complex and difficult task. Although prior studies about assessment have offered teachers guidelines and standards as support to generate quality assessment items, little is known about how teachers engage these supports or enact their own beliefs into practice while developing assessments. Presented in this paper are the results from analyzing discourse among five high school chemistry teachers during an assessment item generation activity, including assessment items produced throughout the activity. Results include a detailed description of the role of knowledge bases embedded within high school chemistry teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge and the processes used to enact these knowledge bases during planned formative assessment design. Implications for chemistry teacher professional development are posited in light of the findings as well as potential future investigations of high school chemistry teacher generation of assessment items.