Affective Elements of the Student Experience That Contribute to Withdrawal Rates in the General Chemistry Sequence: A Multimethod Study

Abstract

The withdrawal of students from Principles of Chemistry courses is a major problem for STEM retention and graduation rates, which are topics of national interest. In order to implement effective intervention methods to reduce withdrawal rates, we must understand the underlying reasons why students withdraw. This paper presents a multimethod study on student withdrawals from Principles of Chemistry from summer 2015 to fall 2018 semester. Eleven students who withdrew were interviewed, and thematic analysis and cluster analysis were used to interpret interview data to understand their reasons for withdrawing. Practical reasons included course structure, student–faculty relationship, student personal factors, chemistry content, and study strategies and academic support. Four themes identified from thematic analysis (hopeless, uncomfortable, demotivated, and overwhelmed) provided deeper insight into the affective emotional factors that contributed to the withdrawals. Cluster analysis revealed natural groupings of student responses and motivations, suggesting that targeted interventions can be developed for different groups. To ensure that our results are comparable to previous studies on course withdrawals, students who withdrew were analyzed according to demographic data. Results revealed that some groups had higher withdrawal rates compared to students who passed the course, which may reflect different levels of academic preparedness and thus an advantage/disadvantage. The analyses presented here will be of value when considering intervention approaches to reduce withdrawals from challenging courses.

Leveraging ChatGPT for Enhancing Critical Thinking Skills

“…After obtaining approval from the Institutional Review Board (IRB), a total of 29 students were recruited from various sections of introductory chemistry courses, predominantly comprising STEM majors specializing in disciplines such as Information Technology, Chemistry, Biology, Environmental Science, Exercise Science, and Mathematics. A deeper exploration of the demographic characteristics of these participants can be found in earlier studies, offering comprehensive insights into the composition of the student body in these courses …”

“…A deeper exploration of the demographic characteristics of these participants can be found in earlier studies, offering comprehensive insights into the composition of the student body in these courses. 39…”

Evolution of Teaching Independent Undergraduate Chemistry Research Courses and Student Skills Developed through the COVID-19 Pandemic and Forward

“…Scores for each of the five research skills were used as input data. Each skill was considered as a clustering variable used in the subsequent k-means cluster analysis as described previously, 47 and the optimal number of clusters was three using the elbow method (Figure S1). 48 Scores were converted to percentages using the total score.…”

Investigating How Chemistry Students’ Reported Challenges Inform the Relationship between Mindset and Academic Performance

“…More variables are required to embrace the scope of teaching-related challenges. Student–faculty relationships might be potential variables that can expand the breadth and depth of teaching-related challenges.…”

“…Students experience various challenges that not only relate to their academic performance but also contribute to withdrawal rates in chemistry courses. , Although termed differently in the literature, common challenges encountered in the course including time management, motivation, course content, lack of resources, teaching strategies, outside circumstances, weak foundation, and chemistry ability have been reported . Mindset theory proposes an explanation predicting behavioral responses to varying challenges .…”