ERIC Number: EJ1319372
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2021-Dec
Pages: 13
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0021-9584
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Exploring Inequities in a Traditional and a Reformed General Chemistry Course
Journal of Chemical Education, v98 n12 p3680-3692 Dec 2021
Improvement in student performance from educational reforms has driven current calls for changes in curricular, instructional, and assessment practices in higher education. Less research has addressed the possibility of such reforms aiding in resolving the well-documented inequities in educational outcomes between sexes and races/ethnicities in STEM courses. In this study, we compared a traditional and a reformed general chemistry course offered at a large public research-intensive university. Using hierarchical linear and logistical modeling, we assessed and investigated the inequities between sexes and races/ethnicities in the outcomes for these courses. Initial analysis looking at aggregated data (not by sex or ethnicity) showed the benefit of reforms specifically for students that had not been as academically well prepared as others. Novel findings for off-sequence (first semester taken in Spring) classes for both the traditional and reformed courses found a female-lead in course grades and benefits for Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, American Indian or Alaska Native, Latinx or Hispanic, and African American or Black (NALA) students. The on-sequence traditional course was found to have a male-lead in achievement in line with previous research. The on-sequence reformed course was found to have more equity in achievement between sexes. Possible sources of that improvement from the traditional course were investigated, and the weighting of different course components in the overall course grades was found to be a critical piece in the reformed course's more equitable outcomes. Though our results are promising in terms of offering a recommendation that may aid in advancing equity between sexes, our results indicate that the educational reforms made fell short in mitigating the pervasive racial/ethnic inequities found in achievement and performance measures.
Descriptors: Equal Education, Chemistry, Curriculum Development, Educational Change, Science Achievement, College Students, Gender Differences, Racial Differences, Hierarchical Linear Modeling
Division of Chemical Education, Inc. and ACS Publications Division of the American Chemical Society. 1155 Sixteenth Street NW, Washington, DC 20036. Tel: 800-227-5558; Tel: 202-872-4600; e-mail: eic@jce.acs.org; Web site: http://pubs.acs.org/jchemeduc
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A