The Dunning-Kruger effect is a cognitive bias that plagues a particular population of students--the unskilled. This population suffers from illusory competence, as determined by inaccurate ratings of their own ability/performance. These mistakenly high self-ratings (i.e. ''illusions of competence'') are typically explained by a metacognitive…

The study reported here examines the learning approaches adopted by students enrolled in introductory chemistry at a public university. To evaluate learning approaches, a group of 61 students enrolled in the course were interviewed at three time-points during the semester, specifically to ascertain how they prepared for the exams. From these…

Modern biology has become increasingly molecular in nature, requiring students to understand basic chemical concepts. Studies show, however, that many students fail to grasp ideas about atom rearrangement and conservation during chemical reactions or the application of these ideas to biological systems. To help provide students with a better…

Chemistry self-efficacy has been defined as a student's beliefs about his or her own capability to perform a given chemistry task. These chemistry self-efficacy beliefs can be influenced by students' experiences in a course, and eventually, these beliefs could affect students' decisions to continue into STEM related-careers. In this study, we…

In this study, students' understanding of chemical changes was investigated in relation to four individual differences, related to logical thinking, field dependence/independence, convergence and divergence thinking. The study took place in Greece with the participation of students (n = 374) from three grades (8th, 10th and 12th grades) of…