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Full-Text Articles in Education

Investigation Into The Measurement Of Student Ability: Refinements, Improvements And Enhanced Understanding Of Factors That Influence Performance, David Schreurs May 2022

Investigation Into The Measurement Of Student Ability: Refinements, Improvements And Enhanced Understanding Of Factors That Influence Performance, David Schreurs

Theses and Dissertations

The following series of experiments were all designed and implemented with the goal of understanding and improving undergraduate students understanding of chemistry. In order to accurately access changes in student’s chemistry understanding, the first chapter focuses on how a student’s chemistry proficiency can be most effectively measured. This includes practical recommendations for the average instructor as well as advanced methods more appropriate for researchers who require highly precise scores. With a better understanding on how to measure student proficiency, the next step was working to improve student understanding through various types of feedback following assessments. On top of establishing a …


Integration Of Scale-Themed Instruction Across The General Chemistry Curriculum And Selected In-Depth Studies, Jaclyn Trate Dec 2017

Integration Of Scale-Themed Instruction Across The General Chemistry Curriculum And Selected In-Depth Studies, Jaclyn Trate

Theses and Dissertations

In 1982, in response to a growing demand for a scientifically literate population, two organizations, the AAAS and NCISE published reports that proposed using themes to bridge scientific disciplines1,2. The NCISE report identified “9 explanatory concepts” which included organization, cause and effect, systems, scale, models, change, structure or function, discontinuous and continuous properties, and diversity. The AAAS report, as part of Project 2061, identified 4 themes that define science literacy which included systems, models, constancy and change, and scale. In 1993, the AAAS released the Benchmarks for Science Literacy3 which outlined what all students should know or be able to …


Persistence In Stem: Development Of A Persistence Model Integrating Self-Efficacy, Outcome Expectations And Performance In Chemistry Gateway Courses, Shalini Srinivasan May 2017

Persistence In Stem: Development Of A Persistence Model Integrating Self-Efficacy, Outcome Expectations And Performance In Chemistry Gateway Courses, Shalini Srinivasan

Theses and Dissertations

STEM persistence has been an important issue, especially in the context of underrepresented groups based on race and gender. Researchers in the last decade or so have been examining the powerful impact that affective and cognitive factors can exert individually on performance and persistence. It is only reasonable to hypothesize that combining affective and cognitive measures would offer a more thorough understanding of factors that impact students’ performance and STEM persistence. Evaluating these outcomes in the context of gateway courses is particularly essential due to the non-negligible percentage of students who drop out of these courses or decide to change …


Exploring The Effects Of Different Classroom Environments On The Learning Process. Synthesis Of Thiazole-Linked Porous Organic Polymers For Co2 Separation And Nitro-Aromatics Sensing., Davide D'Urbino Jan 2017

Exploring The Effects Of Different Classroom Environments On The Learning Process. Synthesis Of Thiazole-Linked Porous Organic Polymers For Co2 Separation And Nitro-Aromatics Sensing., Davide D'Urbino

Theses and Dissertations

When attempting to study the learning process of undergraduate chemistry student, the classroom and any interaction that take place within it constitute the social context of interest. By studying how different approaches can foster different classroom environments, it is possible to approach course design from an informed and scientifically sound perspective. Thus, it becomes necessary to identify and quantify the factors that have a positive or negative effect on the classroom environment. Social comparison concerns, comfort levels and self-efficacy have been shown to be social factors that affect each other as well as the learning process and have therefore been …


The Measure And Instruction Of Scale In Introductory Chemistry, Karrie Linn Gerlach Dec 2012

The Measure And Instruction Of Scale In Introductory Chemistry, Karrie Linn Gerlach

Theses and Dissertations

As a student, it is fundamental to comprehend how small an atom or molecule is in order to truly understand how the world works. The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) has determined that scale is a critical theme that pervades through all areas of science and is critical to a deep understanding. This project determined that students, which are more proficient with scale and moving between the macroscopic and particle worlds, were better performers in chemistry classes. Interviews were used to determine what the students understood and what common misconceptions were present. These lead to the development …


Rapid Knowledge Assessment (Rka): Assessing Students Content Knowledge Through Rapid, In Class Assessment Of Expertise, Erin Margaret O'Connell Dec 2012

Rapid Knowledge Assessment (Rka): Assessing Students Content Knowledge Through Rapid, In Class Assessment Of Expertise, Erin Margaret O'Connell

Theses and Dissertations

Understanding how students go about problem solving in chemistry lends many possible advantages for interventions in teaching strategies for the college classroom. The work presented here is the development of an in-classroom, real-time, formative instrument to assess student expertise in chemistry with the purpose of developing classroom interventions. The development of appropriate interventions requires the understanding of how students go about starting to solve tasks presented to them, what their mental effort (load on working memory) is, and whether or not their performance was accurate. To measure this, the Rapid Knowledge Assessment (RKA) instrument uses clickers (handheld electronic instruments for …


A Study Of Form And Content For A Laboratory Manual To Be Used By Students In General Chemistry Laboratory, Berne P. Broadbent Jan 1946

A Study Of Form And Content For A Laboratory Manual To Be Used By Students In General Chemistry Laboratory, Berne P. Broadbent

Theses and Dissertations

This investigation was carried out for general chemistry classes in which recitation and laboratory work are closely integrated and in which very close supervision is given to laboratory classes. Results indicate that there are fewer failures under these conditions if students do individual work. Students receiving grades of over 80% seem to work just as effectively in pairs as they do when working individually, but about 5% who fail when working in pairs could, apparently obtain grades above 60% if they did individual work. The formal full statement type of report is substantially more effective than the questionaire report as …