Diane M. Bunce

Student recognition and construction of quality chemistry essay responses

Students in chemistry traditionally experience more difficulty responding to essay questions than to calculating a numerical answer for the same concept. The purpose of this study is to investigate students’ understanding of what constitutes a complete and cogent essay answer in chemistry. Preliminary data from thirty-nine non-science majors support the hypothesis that students do not reliably recognize or construct adequate responses to chemistry essay questions. In addition, students’ intention to construct a complete and cogent argument is compared to their actual responses. Inability to construct complete and cogent arguments may result in lower achievement scores on essay questions. Since essay questions are typically used to test both achievement and the effectiveness of innovative teaching practices, this situation may mask significant research results. These data suggest the need for a more extensive investigation of student construction of quality essay answers in chemistry as well as in other sciences. [Chem. Educ. Res. Pract., 2006, 7 (3), 160-169]

Challenging Myths About Teaching and Learning Chemistry

The last chapter in the first part of the Section I “Teaching and Learning Chemistry” by Bunce entitled “Challenging Myths about Teaching and Learning Chemistry” argues about students’ learning chemistry never the less teaching is active or it comprises different multimodel representational approaches. Some things in education are repeated so often that they become embedded in the collective memory of both students and teachers. We have come to accept as “truths” such things, for example, students’ attention during lecture, the use of modern technology will increase students’ achievements in chemistry, students just memorize the learning material and do not study for understanding, students forget most of what they learn in chemistry immediately after completing an exam… Bunce discusses further in the chapter about the proofs to support the acceptance of these ideas within the academic community and she tries to explore the truth behind these beliefs and some of the intervening variables that affect their measurement and interpretation. The goal of this chapter is to move our knowledge of how students learn from unsubstantiated opinion to a more accurate research-based foundation.