Meanings Attributed by Students of the Integrated Course of a Federal Institute on Chemistry Teaching

Abstract

Background: Due to the problems in chemistry teaching, several teachers sought to build more attractive and contextualised educational practices, which has been the target of numerous studies in the literature. In this perspective, research works that address the meanings attributed by students and the degree of difficulty in learning themes commonly taught in this subject are of great importance. Objective: To understand the meanings attributed by the students of an integrated course of a federal institute on chemistry and evaluate the degree of difficulty they attributed to the subjects taught. Design: Research with mixed methods and convergent design. Setting and participants: 90 students from the first, second, and third years of an integrated chemistry course at a federal institute participated in the research. Data collection and analysis: Questionnaires were applied to know why students think it is good or bad to study chemistry. The students also mentioned difficulty learning some of the subjects taught. Results: According to the students, it is good to study chemistry because it addresses everyday issues and helps us to get to know the world. The negative points are the difficulty and complexity of theoretical themes and the involvement of calculations. Conclusions: Themes that are difficult to visualise or those in which the chemical language is not contextualised are the most difficult to learn.