High School Chemistry Content Background of Introductory College Chemistry Students and Its Association with College Chemistry Grades (original) (raw)

Factors influencing success in introductory college chemistry

Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 2005

Previous research has found a wide range of predictors of student performance in introductory college chemistry. These predictors are associated with both the students' backgrounds and their high school learning experiences. The purpose of this research study was to examine the link between high school chemistry pedagogical experiences and performance in introductory college chemistry while accounting for individual educational and demographic differences. The researchers surveyed 1531 students enrolled in first-semester introductory college chemistry courses for science and engineering majors at 12 different U.S. colleges and universities. Using multiple regression analysis, the researchers uncovered several interesting high school pedagogical experiences that appeared to be linked with varying levels of performance in college chemistry. Most notably, the researchers found that repeating chemistry labs for understanding was associated with higher student grades, whereas overemphasis on lab procedure in high school chemistry was associated with lower grades in college. These results suggest that high school teachers' pedagogical choices may have a link to future student performance. ß

Influencing College Chemistry Success through High School Chemistry Teaching

2006

The connection between high school chemistry pedagogical experiences and introductory college chemistry performance has been a topic researched in published science education literature since the 1920s. However, analysis techniques have limited the generalizability of these results. This review discusses the findings of a large-scale, multi-institutional research study addressing many of these previous limitations. The findings reveal that high school experiences are significantly associated with college performance. The implications indicate that high school chemistry teachers may have a positive impact in preparing their students for future success in introductory-level college chemistry.

Divergent Views: Teacher and Professor Perceptions About Pre-College Factors That Influence College Science Success

2000

Interview data from secondary and postsecondary science instructors explored their in depth views on preparing students for college science. Professors expressed a high level of consensus concerning two factors: general student skills and mathematics preparation. Teachers, who expressed lower levels of consensus, did agree on the importance of mathematics, but also highlighted a variety of factors that promote active pedagogy in the classroom as well as the importance of technology, textbooks, other materials, and assessments. Given this divergence, the authors explored the research supporting the value of these factors as well as highlighted possible strategies for narrowing the gap.

Relative success in college chemistry for students who experienced a high-school course in chemistry and those who had not

Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 1988

A total of 53 high-ability students who had completed the eleventh year in high school enrolled in a standard college chemistry course at the University of Iowa. Half of them had completed a high-school course in chemistry and half had not. After 2 months of instruction during a summer session, there was no difference between groups as to attitude toward chemistry, performance on the ACS-NSTA Chemistry Achievement Examination, final examination for the course, and course grade. There was a great difference in the amount of time required of tutors; the students who had not completed high-school chemistry spent more time in studying and with tutors.

Community College Chemistry Coursetaking and STEM Academic Persistence

Journal of Chemical Education, 2018

Community colleges educate nearly half of all students who complete postsecondary degrees in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. For many matriculated students, chemistry is a required gatekeeping course for postsecondary retention and advancement in STEM majors. This research explored community college student enrollment and performance in introductory chemistry courses for STEM majors, and how chemistry achievement related to student background characteristics and degree persistence. Data included grades, demographics, enrollment patterns, and degree status for 1,690 chemistry students who matriculated at a diverse, suburban community college from 2011 to 2014. Descriptive statistics indicated 32% of students received grades of D, F, or W in introductory chemistry; 49% of these students changed their majors after taking the course, with fourfifths of those degree changers switching to non-STEM fields. Binary logistic regression models revealed that chemistry enrollment was a significant predictor of degree change to non-STEM disciplines, with biology and anatomy/physiology coursetaking predicting STEM persistence. Degree change to non-STEM was predicted by chemistry performance but not by student characteristics including gender, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. The results indicate that chemistry coursetaking and performance are notable factors affecting student persistence in STEM disciplines, and achievement is largely independent of student background variables. Implications for community college chemistry teaching and STEM academic advisement are discussed.

Student Success in Intensive versus Traditional Introductory College Chemistry Courses

Journal of Chemical Education, 2012

The goal of this study was to determine whether students would be more successful in a traditional 15-week introductory college chemistry course or an intensive three-week version of the same course. In addition to course format, we also analyzed whether the students' academic experience (measured as the number of college credit hours taken by these students), life experience (measured as the number of years since the student graduated from high school), academic major (categorized as physical science, life science, or nonscience), and gender had an effect on their success in the class. The results of this study showed that, once corrected for student academic ability, students in the intensive course were more successful in this course than the students in the equivalent traditional course. However, we were unable to show that academic experience, life experience, academic major, or gender had any significant effect on student success in these courses.

Depth versus breadth: How content coverage in high school science courses relates to later success in college science coursework

Science Education, 2009

This study relates the performance of college students in introductory science courses to the amount of content covered in their high school science courses. The sample includes 8310 students in introductory biology, chemistry, or physics courses in 55 randomly chosen U.S. colleges and universities. Students who reported covering at least 1 major topic in depth, for a month or longer, in high school were found to earn higher grades in college science than did students who reported no coverage in depth. Students reporting breadth in their high school course, covering all major topics, did not appear to have any advantage in chemistry or physics and a significant disadvantage in biology. Care was taken to account for significant covariates: socioeconomic variables, English and mathematics proficiency, and rigor of their preparatory high science course. Alternative operationalizations of depth and breadth variables result in very similar findings. We conclude that teachers should use their judgment to reduce coverage in high school science courses and aim for mastery by extending at least 1 topic in depth over an extended period of time.

Improving the Success of First Term General Chemistry Students at a Liberal Arts Institution

Education Sciences

General Chemistry is a high impact course at Benedictine University where a large enrollment of~250 students each year, coupled with low pass rates of a particularly vulnerable student population from a retention point of view (i.e., first-year college students), make it a strategic course on which to focus innovative pedagogical development. Although our institution is not alone in the challenges that this particular course presents, we have prioritized implementing interventional strategies targeting academically underprepared students to increase their success by providing a preparatory course prior to this gateway course. Focusing on the persistence framework to guide curricular decisions, progress towards aligning our general chemistry curriculum to the academic profile of our students has afforded much higher pass rates than even two years ago.

Predicting College Student Achievement in Science Courses

2013

Student learning in higher education has been the subject of intense research for more than two decades, with major findings of this inquiry summarized in several informative monographs (Biggs, 1999; Dart & Boulton-Lewis, 1998; Marton et al., 1997; Prosser & Trigwell, 1999; Watkins & Biggs, 1996; as cited in Zeegers, 2004). One of the key findings from this large body of research is that learning is a complex human activity that cannot be easily conceptualized by means of a simple model. The factors that can impact students’ success in higher education are manifold, but they are sometimes categorized as being either personality factors (e.g., age, prior experiences, learning styles) or contextual factors (e.g., teaching and learning activities, assessment procedures). Numerous studies have attempted to correlate learning outcomes in higher education with individual contributing factors; however, few studies have attempted to elucidate the inter-relationship between contributing fact...