Daniel Southam

Students’ attitudes, self-efficacy and experiences in a modified process-oriented guided inquiry learning undergraduate chemistry classroom

This one-semester, mixed methods study underpinning social cognition and theory of planned behaviour investigated the attitudes, self-efficacy, and experiences of 559 first year undergraduate chemistry students from two cohorts in modified process-oriented guided inquiry learning (POGIL) classes. Versions of attitude toward the study of chemistry (ASCI v2), and chemistry attitudes and experiences questionnaire (CAEQ) were adopted, modified, and administered to understand and gauge students’ affective outcomes before (pre) and after (post) POGIL intervention. Students’ post-POGIL perceptions of their attitudes, self-efficacy and experiences were statistically significantly higher. In addition to confirmatory testing of reliability of data obtained from ASCI v2 and CAEQ in an Australian POGIL context, the findings suggest that POGIL intervention provides positive affective experiences to students who are new to chemistry or have limited prior chemistry knowledge.

Assessing Students’ Attitudes Toward Forensic Science: Collecting an Expert Consensus

Abstract We report the development of an affective domain instrument for the assessment of undergraduate students’ attitudes toward forensic science. Assessment of attitudes of the respondents is important to understand mediating factors in student motivation and ultimately success in the discipline. The instrument was developed using an iterative process based on responses from an expert panel of Australian forensic science educators to an array of forensic science and teaching related topics, and refined using further feedback from the panel on more specific items. The layout of the instrument, with regard to both the wording and placement of items, was developed with regular test takers (i.e., students) in mind and through the application of basic psychometric principles. The engagement of forensic science colleagues across Australia has resulted in an outcome that could provide a source of credible and relevant evidence of student attitudes toward forensic science.

Gathering Psychometric Evidence for ASCIv2 to Support Cross-Cultural Attitudinal Studies for College Chemistry Programs

Instruments in the affective domain may not be equivalent when the tests are administered to different populations with different cultural backgrounds. To illustrate a general approach, this study was intended to gather psychometric evidence for an instrument of attitude toward chemistry to support cross-cultural attitudinal studies for college chemistry students. The shortened version of Attitude toward the Subject of Chemistry Inventory, ASCIv2, was used at three universities, one in Saudi Arabia, one in Australia, and one in the USA. Based on the results of psychometric analysis of internal consistency reliability and internal structure validity, we found that students from the Saudi Arabian institution responded to item 6, chemistry is challenging or not, differently from those in Australia and the USA. This study signifies the importance of examining utility and student response in context when instrument data is gathered in cross-cultural scenarios, to ensure that responses in the new context still match the trait underlying the instruments. In addition, this study contributes to the use of ASCIv2 regarding the possible variance and profile for attitude scores from multiple countries.

The timing of an experiment in the laboratory program is crucial for the student laboratory experience: acylation of ferrocene as a case study

An assessment of the acylation of ferrocene laboratory exercise across three successive years resulted in a significant fluctuation in student perception of the experiment. This perception was measured by collecting student responses to an instrument immediately after the experiment, which includes Likert and open-ended responses from the student. Students in all three years identified technical benefits from the experiment. In Years 1 and 3, students also recognised the benefits of improving their conceptual understanding of organic chemistry. However, in Year 2, where background knowledge became a critical and limiting factor, all perception of conceptual understanding as an experiment objective was lost, and only recognition of technical development remained. Analysis of these data also indicated that students who have enough time to complete the experiment also perceive a measure of responsibility for their own learning, whereas time-poor students have an over-reliance on the laboratory notes and demonstrators. Addressing concepts such as these may be the triggers required for time-poor experiments to garner a positive student experience and maximise both the conceptual and technical benefits of the experiment.