A well-established literature base identifies a portion of students enrolled in post-secondary General Chemistry as at-risk of failing the course based on incoming metrics. Learning about the experiences and factors that lead to this higher failure rate is essential toward improving retention in this course. This study examines the relationship between study habits and academic performance for at-risk students in General Chemistry. Students who were in the bottom quartile of SAT math scores were identified as at-risk students. The study habits of General Chemistry students, both those identified as at-risk and those not identified were measured by text message inquiries. The text message asked ‘‘Have you studied for General Chemistry I in the past 48 hours? If so, how did you study?” twice a week throughout a semester. Student responses to the messages were used to calculate the frequency of studying throughout the term. The results from a multiple regression analysis showed that high frequency of studying could mitigate the difference between at-risk and non-at-risk students on final exam scores. Additionally, the quality of studying for six at-risk students was analyzed by student interviews in concert with their text message responses. The results indicated that the quality of studying is not necessarily linked to frequency of studying and both quality and frequency can play a role in at-risk students' academic performance. The results presented offer a path for at-risk students to succeed in General Chemistry and the methodology presented offers a potential avenue for evaluating future efforts to improve student success.
The research-based pedagogical strategy of flipped classes has been shown to be effective for increasing student achievement and retention in postsecondary chemistry classes. The purpose of flipped classes is to move content delivery (e.g., lecture) outside of the classroom, freeing more face-to-face time for active learning strategies. The opportunity to engage in active learning with students can be a challenge for instructors of large classes (more than 100 students). Furthermore, there has been little discussion in the chemical education literature to provide instructors with detailed descriptions of successful implementations of flipped classes combined with active learning in large classes. To this end, this report provides a comprehensive description and evaluation of a coordinated implementation of flipped classes with peer-led team learning (PLTL) for second-semester general chemistry with class sizes greater than 200 students. This approach is described as "Flipped PLTL". This report includes details about creation of videos for flipped instruction, class structure, and the recruiting and training of peer leaders. The purpose of this paper is to provide an example of flipped classes with PLTL that can guide other instructors who wish to implement these pedagogies in large classes.
Current STEM workforce issues and retention problems faced by postsecondary STEM education have renewed research efforts in this arena. A review of literature on STEM professors indicates that although this population reports difficulties integrating teaching and research responsibilities, there have not yet been any qualitative studies conducted to deeply investigate the complexities of managing teaching, research, and service. This work utilized a set of four phenomenological case studies conducted over a 10‐month period to address the following research question: How do individuals in a sample of tenure‐track science professors prioritize teaching among their other professional roles and responsibilities? Contrary to literature speculation, the results of this study indicate that the participants make decisions about the way they allocate limited time in an unlimited work environment based on their intrinsic, personal career goals and aspirations and appear to be only minimally affected by external pressures to “prioritize research over teaching.” Furthermore, all of the participants in the study indicated that other than research training, they received little to no preparation for their jobs. These findings provide discipline‐based education researchers with points of interest for further study and provide professional development stakeholders with data for the design of educational support programs. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 54: 937–960, 2017
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