Organic chemistry is accepted as a crucial part of science higher education funneling students into many career opportunities such as pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, and medical industries. Students attempting organic chemistry courses in higher education are among a plethora of majors including biology, chemistry, health science, and engineering.…

A growing body of research suggests that student-centered teaching methods are associated with positive learning outcomes for undergraduate students. Yet, the extent of their use and factors leading to their adoption in fields, such as chemistry, continue to be under-explored. Utilizing survey data collected during 2015, we begin to fill this gap,…

In this study, adults naïve to organic chemistry drew stereoisomers of molecules and explained their drawings. From these explanations, we identified nine strategies that participants expressed during those explanations. Five of the nine strategies referred to properties of the molecule that were explanatorily "irrelevant" to solving the…

The importance of attitudes and other variables of the affective domain in education is acknowledged for a long time. In this study, we used an attitude questionnaire to survey 498 Portuguese 9th-grade students to determine the predictive ability of the attitudes towards the discipline of Physics-chemistry on school achievement. Possible gender…

When implementing innovative teaching techniques, instructors often seek to gauge the success of their methods. Proposing one approach to assessing classroom innovation, this study examines the ability of students' ratings of engagement and instructional practices to predict their learning in a cooperative (team-based) framework. After identifying…

As a result of rapid technological advances, smartphones have recently enjoyed widespread use. The basic purpose of this study is to examine the effects of smartphones when they are used as educational tools in learning environments. To assess the effects of smartphone use on learning, this study uses smartphones as educational tools in a…

Self-regulated learning skills (such as goal setting, organizing environment and time, seeking help and self-evaluation) are critical for students to be able to successfully and meaningful learn abstract concepts such as reduction, oxidation and electrolysis. The purpose of this research was to examine the relationships between self-regulated…

Peer review is a significant component in scientific research. Introducing peer review into inquiry processes may be regarded as an aim to develop student understanding regarding quality in inquiries. This study examines student understanding in inquiry peer reviews among pre-university chemistry students, aged 16-17, when they enact a design of a…

Problem Statement: Motivation plays an important role in explaining students' academic achievement. In an effort to explain students' purposes for learning and the reasons they engage in a learning activity, different achievement goal models (dichotomous, trichotomous, and 2x2) have been proposed over time. The present study aimed to extend…

Over the last 30 years, there has been ongoing research and debate concerning the implementation and effectiveness of cooperative learning in the classroom. The problem is determining the fair assignment of individual grades while using cooperative work. Teachers have limited time to compile, equate, and convert group grades for each student. The…

To address the need for reform in undergraduate science education a new instructional model called "Argument-Driven Inquiry" (ADI) was developed and then implemented in a undergraduate chemistry course at a community college in the southeastern United States (Sampson, Walker, & Grooms, 2009; Walker, Sampson, & Zimmerman, in press). The ADI…

The aim of the present paper is two-fold. First, it attempts to support previous findings on the role of some psychometric variables, such as, M-capacity, the degree of field dependence-independence, logical thinking and the mobility-fixity dimension, on students' achievement in chemistry problem solving. Second, the paper aims to raise some…