Chemistry Education Research and Practice最新文献

The design of assessments shapes what we learn about students’ conceptual understanding. In the context of chemistry education, visual representations are important components of learning and assessment. To examine the role of representations in assessing students’ reasoning about chemical and physical changes, we developed two multiple choice questionnaires: one that represents the choice options in verbal form and one that represents isomorphic options – in pictures. The questionnaires included a second-tier rating scale of the questions’ general comprehensibility and the clarity of the pictures. The questionnaires were distributed among 374 eighth graders in two phases. In the first phase we found that on average, students performed slightly better on the verbal version, and some verbal items were significantly easier than their visual counterparts, but one item showed the opposite trend. Interviews revealed that visual representations exposed a wider range of ideas among respondents, and in some cases, created confusion. The second phase focused on the visual version and revealed significant positive correlations between clarity judgements and performance in questions with visuals such as graphs that represent the change in mass and molecular structures that represent the chemical formula, and no correlations on others. The analysis of the interviews, together with the clarity ratings, indicates that in these questions, visuals can be conceived as an additional layer of challenge, while other questions entail conceptual misunderstandings that are either exposed or concealed by cues in the external, visual layer.

Students face many challenges when they learn redox reactions at the submicroscopic level. Animations have been shown to support students’ learning, but some students may not interpret the animations as intended. Guided by the cognitive resources, or the Knowledge in Pieces perspective, this study examined how students made sense of redox reactions after they engaged in different animation activities. Our participants were 15 first-year university students taking introductory chemistry courses. Besides their written responses to diagram-based post-animation questions, we also interviewed six of these 15 participants so that they could elaborate on their written responses. We identified two cognitive resources to which students strongly adhered when reasoning about redox reactions. The first, ion pair, reflects the idea that ions remain bonded as pairs in solution. The second, ion attraction, frames redox reactions as interactions between oppositely charged ions. While these ideas have been reported elsewhere, we argue that they are key to students’ sense-making of redox because, in determining the best representation of redox reaction, students primarily focused on whether ions appeared paired or whether opposite charges could “react”. Furthermore, we suggest that these two cognitive resources could explain students’ alternative conceptions in other chemistry topics such as bonding, structure and properties, solution chemistry, and elements/compounds. Our findings suggest that instruction and animation design could help students visualise ion distribution before electron transfer, and support students to see the values and limitations of ion pair and ion attraction in different contexts.

In a societal context where chemistry is often perceived negatively, it is essential to promote educational approaches that foster meaningful and engaging learning experiences from an early age. This study aimed to explore how the integration of storytelling and hands-on activities can contribute to primary school children's engagement and understanding of scientific concepts, leading to a more meaningful chemistry learning. The research was conducted in four primary schools in the northern region of Portugal, involving 237 third- and fourth-grade students in non-formal educational initiatives. A qualitative methodology was employed, based on the analysis of students’ laboratory notebooks. The intervention consisted of a dramatized story from the book Histórias com Química [Stories with Chemistry], followed by three water-based hands-on activities addressing key chemical concepts: acid–base reactions, supersaturated solutions, and redox processes. Children's responses were analysed using framework theory, which enabled the categorization of their conceptual development. The findings showed that students' responses progressed from simple sensory observations and intuitive explanations to the construction of basic scientific models. High levels of participation, engagement, and enthusiasm were observed throughout the activities. These results suggest that combining storytelling with hands-on experimentation represents a promising pedagogical strategy for introducing chemistry concepts in early education and promoting a more positive and accessible image of this science.

Chemistry-specific mindsets have been shown to influence student engagement, self-efficacy, goal orientation, and academic achievement in chemistry. These beliefs are increasingly recognized as context-dependent, shaped through interactions within specific social and educational environments. The present study investigated the extent to which Turkish undergraduates have a growth chemistry mindset and how these beliefs relate to academic performance in chemistry across engineering and natural sciences majors. A total of 817 second-semester general chemistry students participated, completing surveys after the second midterm and prior to the final exam. The Chemistry Mindset Instrument (CheMI; Santos D. L., Barbera J. and Mooring S. R., (2022), Chem. Educ. Res. Pract., 23(3), 742–757) was used to assess students’ mindsets, while grade records provided measures of exam performance. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) supported the unidimensional structure of the CheMI, consistent with previous findings, providing evidence for its validity in this cultural and educational context. Structural equation modeling (SEM) examined whether chemistry mindset mediated the relationship between midterm and final exam performance across majors. Additional regression analyses explored how mindset influenced the midterm–final performance relationship among students with low, medium, and high levels of achievement. SEM results indicated that second midterm performance did not significantly predict mindset for either major. However, mindset significantly predicted final exam performance for engineering students, whereas this relationship was nonsignificant for natural sciences students. Furthermore, mindset emerged as a significant predictor only among the highest-performing students, suggesting that it may play a differentiating role at the upper end of achievement. These findings underscore the importance of considering mindset in instructional design and provide insights for targeted strategies to enhance student success in chemistry.

After the COVID-19 pandemic, new digital resources were maintained together with reinstated in-person activities, leading to a blended learning environment that provides higher education students with a variety of learning alternatives. This study provides a detailed analysis of students’ choices among these alternatives and their associations with academic performance and dropout rates within a first-year General Chemistry course at a public, open-enrollment university. The evolution of students’ preferences for a range of learning activities and resources—spanning virtual and in-person formats, as well as active and passive modes—was examined. Both student characteristics and resource attributes were analyzed as potential factors influencing these preferences. The results show that access to virtual resources surged during the crisis and, although it steadily declined afterwards, the most commonly used and valued resources remain those delivered virtually, particularly those closely related to the course content assessed in the final tests. On the other hand, activities involving in-person student–instructor interaction, such as theory lectures or tutoring sessions are less valued than watching selected parts of the corresponding recorded videos or using the electronic forum, respectively. Materials focusing on content not directly assessed in tests are also perceived as less useful. Overall, the results indicate a shift towards more self-paced, time-saving learning. However, in-person tutoring session attendance correlates with better final marks, while over-reliance on the electronic forum may signal academic struggles leading to lower performance and dropout. These findings emphasize the need to balance time-saving virtual learning with in-person support.

An emphasis on science practices in university science education provides a logical route to student development of scientific literacy and critical thinking. Unlike scientific literacy and critical thinking which have been the subjects of much debate and controversy, the science practices are consensus-based and well-defined. As the disaggregated components of critical thinking, science practices are well-positioned to support and systematically assess student development of critical thinking. In this paper, we report on our examination of general chemistry laboratory curricula for opportunities to engage students in science practices using the Three-Dimensional Learning Assessment Protocol, 3D-LAP. Our findings suggest that the laboratory curricula provide opportunities for students to engage in some practices, while others are consistently underrepresented. Additionally, there is a disproportionate emphasis on mathematical thinking which not only has equity implications, especially for marginalized students, but could also have the unintended consequence of students developing a distorted view of the intellectual work of chemistry. The findings of our study indicate a need for greater balance with respect to the practices in the general chemistry laboratory curricula, and have the potential to inform the design, development, or adaptation of lab curricula to better support scientific literacy and critical thinking. We couple accountable disciplinary knowledge and constructive alignment to discuss these and other findings and implications of our work for teaching, learning, and research.

This research focused on the development of a theory of equity related to chemistry instruction in higher education. While there has been a growing interest in promoting fairness within chemical education, a unified theory of equity in chemistry instruction has yet to be defined and established. Achieving equity in chemistry instruction requires addressing multiple factors. To explore this, Constructivist Grounded Theory along with reflexive Thematic Analysis were employed. In this case study, 42 chemistry classes were observed at two public universities in Colorado. Additionally, interviews were conducted with twelve undergraduate students, nine chemistry instructors, and nine equity practitioners recruited from five public universities in Colorado. Ten theoretical elements of equity were developed from a process of initial, focused, and theoretical coding of the collected data. These elements of equity, their interconnections, and their grounding in prior scholarship informed the formulation of the Theory of Equity in Chemistry Instruction. Herein, these concepts are presented alongside raw, verbatim data collected from participants. An equity observation protocol is provided which could be piloted in future studies to explore the transferability of this theory beyond Colorado. The elements of this theory provide both a conceptual contribution and a practical foundation for developing new instruments or guiding methodologies in ongoing research on equity in chemistry instruction.

The purpose of this systematic literature review is to analyze the use and impact of game-based approaches in secondary school chemistry education between 2014 and 2024. More specifically, it examines the impact of gamification, game-based learning, and serious games on student academic achievement, motivation, and engagement. Based on defined inclusion criteria, 52 peer-reviewed studies were identified through a structured database search. In the past decade, there has been a significant increase in research interest in this area. In a study of three approaches, game-based learning was the most commonly employed method. The three methods, game-based learning, gamification, and serious games, were found to have a positive impact on student outcomes, particularly in terms of motivation and engagement. Furthermore, positive effects were observed on learning outcomes, especially among students with lower prior knowledge or lower academic performance. This review provides an overview of recent research on game-based learning in chemistry education and highlights its growing relevance. In the future, researchers should investigate additional variables, such as self-efficacy, emotional responses, and problem-solving skills, and investigate how different student populations may benefit from game-based strategies. Practical implications for educators are also discussed, emphasizing the need for well-planned and context-sensitive implementation in the classroom.

Chemical bonding is an abstract topic that students often find difficult to grasp. This study examines the long-term retention of knowledge about chemical bonding after instruction using a force-based approach, grounded on Coulomb's law. The study involved 15 students from an upper secondary school in Sweden. Using Bernstein's concept of vertical horizontal and vertical hierarchical discourse, students’ conceptual understanding was examined through semi-structured, task-based interviews one year after the instruction. The findings indicate that students who demonstrated solely, or primarily hierarchical discourse when solving the tasks demonstrated a wide range of cognitive strategies – from rote memorization to deep conceptual reasoning – when explaining how and why chemical bonds form. These results highlight the value of introducing fundamental Coulombic concepts early in the teaching of chemical bonding, as all chemical bonds can be linked to these principles. Regardless of knowledge discourse used during the interview, many students struggled to articulate the concept of electronegativity and its role in explaining bond formation. Interestingly, while covalent bonding was often described using a hierarchical discourse, the students tended to shift to a more horizontal discourse when addressing ionic bonding, frequently relying in the octet rule as the main explanatory tool. This trend underscores the need to place greater emphasis on electrostatic interaction between subatomic particles and ions to foster a force-based understanding of bonding and move beyond oversimplified explanations of covalent and ionic bonds.

There is an ongoing effort in the chemistry education community to promote instructional reform in undergraduate education that shifts the instructional emphasis from teaching disaggregated facts and skills to promoting more meaningful learning outcomes. In an effort to improve student performance as well as strengthen the student's conceptual understanding of core chemistry concepts, this study leveraged a hybrid (flipped) learning environment to integrate instructional activities inspired by the three-dimensional learning (3DL) framework into a college-level general chemistry course sequence. In phase one of the study, a hybrid general chemistry course that was partially structured around the 3DL framework was assessed in comparison to three other teaching-as-usual courses. The Higher Dimensional Lecture (HDL) course appeared to improve some higher order learning outcomes versus courses that were structured around a traditional curriculum, however no significant difference in 3DL assessment performance was observed relative to a traditional course that was observed to incorporate some elements of 3D learning. Phase two of the study was designed to address potential limitations in phase one by utilizing recitation sessions to increase the frequency at which students engaged with HDL practice activities. This appeared to improve higher order learning outcomes, as students who completed the HDL practice activities performed significantly better on summative 3DL assessments relative to students who completed more traditional problem-solving exercises. Students in this HDL practice activity treatment also performed better on one 3DL summative assessment versus students from a more traditional course. The results presented herein should provide a model for how instructors can use a hybrid course structure to promote reform-minded instruction within a traditional general chemistry curriculum.