Chemistry Education Research and Practice最新文献

Stoichiometry is a significant yet challenging topic in chemistry education. While extensive research has explored students’ conceptions, difficulties, and learning approaches, this study adopts a competency-based approach to introduce a new model defining three competency levels in stoichiometry. The stoichiometry competency level model (StoiCoLe model) offers a framework for evaluating students’ performance in algorithmic stoichiometry. To test the assumptions of the StoiCoLe model, a 40-item test was developed to measure and categorise student's competencies according to the model's levels. Using data from 289 students enrolled in an introductory chemistry course across three semesters, psychometric properties and model assumptions were analysed through Rasch-analysis and item processing times. The results indicate that there is sufficient psychometric reliability in the categorization of students according to the StoiCoLe model. However, both the item difficulty and the processing times are only partially consistent with the assumptions of the model and indicate an adaptation of the model. In line with prior studies, the majority of students exhibited lower competency levels. These findings are discussed in terms of how the competency-based approach can enhance relevant competencies and contribute to literature on chemistry education in stoichiometry.

Symmetry is a foundational concept in inorganic chemistry, essential for understanding molecular properties and interactions. Yet, little is known about how instructors teach symmetry or what shapes their instructional and curricular choices. To investigate this, we analyzed classroom observations from fourteen inorganic chemistry instructors from various institutions, focusing on their use of student-centered practices and emphasis on symmetry content. We then conducted semi-structured interviews to explore the reasoning behind their decisions, using the Teacher-Centered Systemic Reform (TCSR) model to interpret influences from personal factors (e.g., teaching experience), teacher thinking (e.g., beliefs about teaching and learning), and contextual factors (e.g., classroom layout). Minute-by-minute analyses of teaching revealed four instructional profiles (student-centered, high-interactive, low-interactive, and instructor-centered) and four content profiles, ranging from an emphasis on symmetry fundamentals (e.g., symmetry elements and operations, point group assignment) to symmetry applications (e.g., spectroscopy, molecular orbitals, character tables). Three themes emerged: (1) instructional approaches and content emphasis vary substantially across instructors; (2) more student-centered instructors tend to focus on foundational symmetry concepts and skills, whereas more instructor-centered instructors tend to prioritize advanced applications; and (3) instructors’ beliefs and prior experiences, more than personal and contextual factors, drive instructional decisions for teaching symmetry.

This study investigates the role of mistakes and affective experiences during online pre-lab activities in predicting students’ situational engagement (conceptualized here as a simultaneous experience of interest, skill, and challenge, i.e. optimal learning moments) in subsequent laboratory sessions in an undergraduate chemistry laboratory course (n = 256). The data collection followed an ecological momentary assessment design. We specified multilevel structural equation models (MSEMs), including two- and three-level structural equation models, to examine how mistakes impacted students’ situational engagement during pre-lab activities and subsequent laboratory sessions. The findings indicate that mistakes in pre-lab tasks were associated with lower perceived skill and higher experience of challenge during that task, but did not predict students’ interest, skill, challenge, or situational engagement in the subsequent laboratory session. Autoregressive effects from pre-lab activities on students’ situational engagement during lab sessions were observed across all elements of engagement, while skill and challenge during pre-lab activities also predicted higher interest in the subsequent laboratory session. Based on our findings, we propose that while mistakes in the pre-lab activities do not play a significant role in predicting students’ engagement upon entering the laboratory, affective experiences during pre-lab activities can play a significant role in predicting students’ engagement in the laboratory, and that laboratory engagement could be enhanced by providing students with sufficiently challenging pre-lab activities.

Learning to do chemistry in the laboratory involves dispositional, motivational, and volitional factors that sustain and direct inquiry. These aspects have been theorised as constituting an incentive dimension that serves as a fundamental driver of inquiry, and they are often conceptualised as grit, perseverance, motivation, and similar notions emphasising individual characteristics or personality traits in students’ striving to learn. While concepts like grit and perseverance treat learning motivation as stable individual traits, epistemic conation captures the dynamic, knowledge-specific intentions that emerge when learners actively seek, evaluate, and apply scientific understanding—shifting focus from who the students are to how they intentionally engage with epistemic practice. Based on a series of studies within the context of laboratory education in pharmaceutical analytical chemistry, which is also a part of a large, recently concluded project, the paper unfolds how epistemic conation manifests in students’ collaborative and individual practices during laboratory experiments, highlighting how it encompasses conative dispositions, motivational factors, goal orientations, and volitional strategies. Through a mixed-method approach involving 30 students in the focus groups’ data and 43 students in the laboratory discourse data, we show that the social aspects of key constructs, such as perseverance, epistemic motivation, experimental goal orientation, and active help-seeking, are crucial in student learning and competence development in the laboratory. These findings suggest that effective laboratory instruction requires assessing how perseverance and motivation emerge through group dynamics rather than evaluating students’ perseverance or motivation as a personal trait, and instructors would need to assess how these qualities emerge and function within group dynamics and peer interactions. Implications for research and practice are presented.

Sensory overload occurs when an individual's sensory inputs exceed their processing capacity; the inability of a person to process sensory stimuli can affect their state of mind, emotions, and behaviours. This is particularly relevant in environments rich in sensory stimuli, such as chemistry laboratories. This report details the characterisation and impact of sensory overload on students in a teaching laboratory that is predominantly used for first-year undergraduate chemistry classes at a UK Higher Education Institution. The data were collected in the form of a survey (n = 258) and semi-structured focus group (n = 3) as well as discussions with those involved in designing and managing the laboratory. Student participants' perceptions of the sensory triggers of lighting, sounds, smells, and touch were evaluated, and responses from neurotypical and neurodivergent students were compared. Quantitative analysis was performed with a significance level of p = 0.05, and qualitative data was analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. Results indicate that, while general sensory stimulation did not significantly differ between neurotypical and neurodiverse groups, the sensory triggers were prevalent for most students – around 19% of survey respondents claimed to have experienced sensory overload or discomfort in the laboratory; the noise level was predominantly categorised as ‘normal’; the lighting conditions were considered to be ‘bright’ to ‘normal’; the participants were mindful of strong smells in the laboratory, particularly from a health and safety perspective; discomfort with sensations of touch centred around use of gloves, layering of laboratory coats on top of clothing, and extended use of safety goggles. Specific aspects such as lighting were perceived differently between neurotypical and neurodivergent students. Findings suggest that even modern teaching spaces can present challenges in accommodating sensory sensitivities, which impact students' learning journeys. There is, therefore, a need for educational environments to consider sensory overload effects and neurodiversity more comprehensively. Future work should focus on implementing targeted mitigations, which are also briefly discussed here, such as designated ‘cool off’ spaces and familiarisation sessions, to create supportive learning spaces. By proactively addressing sensory overload and promoting more inclusive learning environments, outcomes can be enhanced for many students, not least for those who are neurodivergent.

Students in introductory chemistry pursue various programs of study (such as biomedical engineering) and may not see chemistry as central to their pursuits. The Informative Utility Value Intervention (IUVI) was developed to provide students with reading materials that explicitly link chemistry topics to their future career interests. By offering career-contextualized content, IUVI aims to help students recognize the practical applications of chemistry for their career interests. The current study qualitatively compares students' written reflections before and after engaging with the reading materials for perceptions of the utility of chemistry. Findings indicate that engagement with the IUVI reading materials reinforced, refined, or expanded students' perceptions of chemistry's utility, depending on how well the provided materials resonated with their career interests. Students’ prior conceptions and content alignment of the reading materials played a central role in shaping students’ perceptions of utility value of chemistry. These findings emphasize the importance of offering students greater autonomy to support the development of utility value of chemistry.

Critical thinking (CT) is actively reflecting upon one's experience and knowledge while searching for necessary information through inquiry, representing a fundamental competency in science education. Transitioning science teaching from passive rote learning to emphasizing CT skills is essential for promoting inquiry-based learning and scientific argumentation. However, fostering and assessing CT within scientific inquiry and laboratory-based learning environments continues to present significant challenges. This study examined the impact of a modified laboratory manual (LM) integrating cognitive prompts designed to enhance CT skills and dispositions in an undergraduate physical chemistry laboratory course. Using a mixed methods approach with pre- and post-experimental design, we assessed CT outcomes with the California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory (CCTDI) and the California Critical Thinking Skills Test (CCTST), supplemented by open-ended questionnaires and semi-structured interviews with both teaching staff and students to evaluate perceptions of the intervention. Participants included 31 second-year undergraduate students randomly assigned to either an experimental group (n = 11) that used the CT-focused modified LM or a control group (n = 20) that followed the traditional LM. Results showed no observable differences between groups in the CCTST tool. However, a statistically significant decrease was observed in the control group's CT dispositions, in the overall score of the CCTDI, and four of seven subscales, while the experimental group maintained their CT dispositions. The four affected subscales were specifically aligned with the modifications’ objectives, while the remaining three were unrelated to the original LM and course objectives. Qualitative findings from interviews corroborated these results, indicating that the targeted modifications effectively sustained and enhanced CT dispositions in undergraduate laboratory settings. The study highlights the importance of incorporating CT through structured learning activities in undergraduate science education to maintain student engagement and CT dispositions, while promoting higher-order thinking skills.

Investigating the relationship between conceptual understanding, as measured by an achievement test on a chemistry topic, and cognitive structure, mapped using a technique that illustrates associations between concepts in learners' minds, can provide valuable insights into both the effectiveness of different assessment methods and the differences they reveal. The objectives of this study are threefold: (1) to determine preservice chemistry teachers' conceptual understanding of electrochemistry, (2) to map their cognitive structures related to electrochemistry concepts, and (3) to investigate whether a relationship exists between their conceptual understanding of electrochemistry and their cognitive structures. A total of 80 preservice chemistry teachers (57 females and 23 males) participated in the study. Data were collected using two instruments: the Word Association Test and the Electrochemistry Concept Test. The Word Association Test included ten stimulus concepts: electrolyte, anode, cathode, electrode, reduction, oxidation, salt bridge, electrolysis, conductivity, and electrochemical cell. The Electrochemistry Concept Test consisted of 18 multiple-choice questions, categorized into five distinct sections. Findings from the Electrochemistry Concept Test revealed that preservice chemistry teachers had an average performance of approximately 40%, indicating inconsistencies in their understanding across five conceptual categories. When compared with data from the Word Association Test, students with lower conceptual performance exhibited weaker, sparser, and more fragmented linkages in their cognitive structures. However, low performance may not stem solely from missing scientific connections In some cases, students may form strong yet scientifically inaccurate associations, reflecting persistent alternative conceptions that interfere with the integration of canonical knowledge. Thus, weak conceptual understanding may result from both missing associations and the presence of coherent but incorrect knowledge structures. These findings underscore the need to interpret cognitive structures not only in terms of connectivity patterns but also concerning the scientific accuracy of those associations.

This study explores how integrating an approach to storytelling, called contextualized storytelling, into the laboratory classroom may be related to students’ self-efficacy, sense of belonging, classroom climate, and lab performance. Contextualized storytelling is designed to help students connect academic content to their lived experiences through personalized narratives. Depending on the course learning outcomes, students shared their stories in written and multimodal formats. Using a mixed-methods case study design, data were collected from 105 first-year students enrolled in General Chemistry I and II through pre- and post-course surveys, storytelling artifacts, and semi-structured interviews. Quantitative findings revealed that storytelling reflection, scientific accuracy, and effort were significantly associated with higher levels of self-efficacy, and all three dimensions positively correlated with both story-based and traditional lab grades. Storytelling creativity also showed a modest positive relationship with students’ perceived improvement in disciplinary belonging. A t-test revealed that women scored significantly higher than men in scientific accuracy and storytelling grades, suggesting gender-based differences in narrative engagement. In addition, while General Chemistry II students achieved higher academic outcomes overall, General Chemistry I students demonstrated stronger personal connections in their storytelling, pointing to distinct affective engagement across courses. Interview data identified effort, personal connection, and group sharing as the storytelling features students found most meaningful to their learning. Together, these results suggest that storytelling connects academic engagement, reflective thinking, and STEM identity development while contributing to inclusive and supportive learning environments. This research offers practical guidance for post-secondary instructors aiming to enhance assessment quality and student connection through narrative-based pedagogy.

An essential goal of science education is to support students in reasoning about the underlying mechanisms of observed phenomena, which requires well-designed instructional approaches. In organic chemistry, various approaches have been designed to support students’ reasoning about mechanisms, including contrasting cases as a task format. Qualitative studies indicate that contrasting cases positively impact students’ mechanistic reasoning since this task format encourages students to identify and analyse similarities and differences in chemical phenomena. Additionally, a prior mixed-methods study showed that scaffolded contrasting cases can advance undergraduate students’ reasoning about mechanisms, but the effect varied depending on prior knowledge. Despite these valuable insights, research has not yet quantitatively analysed the effectiveness of scaffolded versus non-scaffolded contrasting cases, compared with single cases. This study quantitatively examines the effects of these instructional approaches on undergraduate organic chemistry students’ learning gains, with a particular focus on the role of prior knowledge. Our findings suggest that non-scaffolded contrasting cases increase learning gains for students with low prior knowledge. Additionally, scaffolded contrasting cases support students with low prior knowledge in their open-ended reasoning about chemical mechanisms. Given these findings, organic chemistry instructors should consider contrasting cases as an alternative task format. However, instructors should introduce the scaffolding used in this study with practice sessions as it may otherwise increase cognitive load for students unaccustomed to its demands.