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The article discusses the result of a study conducted at the Chemistry 108 class at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, which assesses the reliability and validity information on the Longeot examination when it is applied with subjects between 17-18-year-old students. The Longeot test is a paper-and-pencil exam designed to evaluate various aspects of formal operational thought. The research is part of a strategy to develop effective instructional systems for students who differed in their levels of intellectual growth and development.

The article presents a study that seeks to provide procedures that will enhance intellectual development, and to assist students in applying formal operational logic to general chemistry concepts. Considering general chemistry as difficult, college freshmen are asked to formulate hypotheses, draw conclusions from proposed changes, and deal mentally with a variety of objects which cannot be directly perceived. In an attempt to facilitate the acquisition of concepts requiring formal operational logic by concrete operational students, the authors used the learning cycle format, which divides instruction into exploration, concept introduction, and concept application. The use of such methods in chemistry laboratory experiments should contribute to increased performance by those formal operational students who fail to employ their formal schemes in a chemical context. The authors conclude that the use of the learning cycle as an instructional strategy may be of some help in making formal chemical concepts more amenable to students who are not operating at the formal level of chemistry.

The article cites a study which seeks to examine the reason for the discrepancy of the surveys conducted by the Education Research Information Center (ERIC) and the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) regarding science course enrollment figures in the U.S. The two surveys used a graded random sampling method in finding the sample of public secondary schools. The ERIC had a total student enrollment sample of 3,125,591 which is 17.8 percent of the 17,543,239 secondary school population for 1970-1971. The NCES had around 7,000,000 students of the 18,577,000 secondary school population in 1972-1973 which is a 39 percent sample. The study concluded that one possible reason for the discrepancy of the two surveys is the complexity of the questionnaires adopted.