Bridging students experience of learning chemistry

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Bridging students experience of learning
chemistry
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The chemistry course

• NQF Level 4 12 credits
• Equivalent to NZ Year 12
• 54 hours class contact time delivered over 18
  weeks
• One 90 minute lab session per week
• Designed for students pathwaying into nursing,
  teaching or engineering degrees
• 90 of students are female and studying towards
  nursing
• A grade of B or better is needed for entry to a
  BN degree

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Participants backgrounds
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(No Transcript)
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Positive attitudes at the start of the course
Responses to the question I am well prepared
for studying chemistry this semester (n 62)
Frequency
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Participants outcomes
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Investigating learning in organic chemistry
Diagram of glucose Diagram of
cholesterol
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Investigating learning of mole concepts
Formulaic triangle provided in assessments to
assist students with mole calculations where n
number of moles M relative molar mass or
relative molecular weight and m mass (in grams)

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Participants later understandings of the mole

Not confirmed on inspection of exam scripts
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Investigating understanding of concentration (1)
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Investigating understanding of concentration (2)
Which is bigger? 0.15 mol/L or 0.2 mol/L.
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Reliance on memorisation and rote learning
Fatimas Rules (Larson, 1995)
In chemistry you have to sort of think, you cant
really visualise or anything, although I find
with chemistry it is more memorising you
know. Researcher - There is a lot of memory
work? Yeah you just have to rote learn it. (Anh,
16 November) The hardest was heat exchange. It
is probably like the easiest thing, but it just
confused me. As soon as I got into my exam I
wrote it down otherwise it would confuse me
later. (Maggie, 5 December)
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Um titrations. Researcher That was easy for
you? Yes like I practiced it the calculations
quite a bit and got the hang of it and it was
quite easy. Researcher So you got a good mark
for that? Yes I got 13 out of 15. Researcher
Thats good because you struggled with moles,
didnt you? Yes I still dont understand anything
to do with moles but somehow titration was easy
for me. (Annie, 28 November)
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Analysis of learning experiences through the lens
of border crossing
Science has a distinct culture of language and
values (Ziman 2000) Learning in science can be
seen as an initiation into a new culture a
cross-cultural activity (Cobern and Aikenhead
(1998) Students must travel from their everyday
life-world to the world of science found in their
science classroom (Jegede and Aikenhead 1999,
p.46) Students might experience these border
crossings in 4 ways (Costa, 1995)
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Border crossing transitions
Smooth Managed Hazardous Virtually
Impossible congruent worlds different
worlds diverse worlds discordant worlds in which
students resist
Maggie Mele Indira Annie
(initial) Ruby Annie (end) Anh
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Border crossing transitions
I didnt get it and I didnt like it because I
didnt get it and I thought it was pointless.
(Annie, 7 August) Yeah actually it was kind of
surprising. It was like someone turned a light
on. Like at the end of last term it was OK but it
just kind of clicked sound of snapping
fingers (Ruby, 31 October)
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