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Conceptually understanding chemistry requires the ability to transition among representational levels to use an understanding of submicroscopic entities and properties to explain macroscopic phenomena. Past literature describes student struggles with these transitions but provides limited information about upper-level post-secondary chemistry students’ abilities to transition among levels. This group is of particular interest as they are engaging in potentially their final training before entering a career as professional chemists, thus if students are likely to develop this skill during their formal education it should be manifest among this group. This study characterized analytical chemistry students’ responses to open-ended assessments on acid–base titrations and thin-layer chromatography for the use of sub-microscopic entities or properties to explain these macroscopic phenomena. Further, to understand whether explanatory statements were an expectation inherent in the instructional context of the setting, the analytical chemistry instructor's lectures on acid–base titrations and thin-layer chromatography were analyzed with the same framework. The analysis found that students seldom invoked explanatory statements within their responses and that congruence between lectures and responses to assessment was primarily limited to the use of macroscopic, descriptive terms. Despite the fact that the lecture in class regularly invoked explanatory statements in one context, this did not translate to student use of explanatory statements. To further test the hypothesis that analytical chemistry students struggle with explanatory statements, a follow-on study was also conducted among a second cohort of students reviewing their responses when specifically prompted to use sub-microscopic entities to explain a macroscopic phenomenon. The results suggest that fewer than half of the students showed proficiency on generating explanatory statements when explicitly prompted to do so. Instructional implications to promote explanatory statements are proposed in the discussion.

The Achievement Goal Framework describes students’ goal orientations as: task-based, focusing on the successful completion of the task; self-based, evaluating performance relative to one's own past performance; or other-based, evaluating performance relative to the performance of others. Goal orientations have been used to explain student success in a range of educational settings, but have not been used in post-secondary chemistry. This study describes the goal orientations of General Chemistry students and explores the relationship of goal orientations to success in the course. On average, students report higher task and self orientations than other orientation. Task orientation had a positive relationship with exam performance and self orientation had a negative relationship with exam performance. Clustering students showed that for the majority of students task and self orientations moved concurrently and students with low preference across the three orientations also performed lowest on exams. Finally, students in classes using Flipped-Peer Led Team Learning, a pedagogy designed to bring active learning to a large lecture class, showed higher task orientation than those in classes with lecture-based instruction.

A well-established literature base identifies a portion of students enrolled in post-secondary General Chemistry as at-risk of failing the course based on incoming metrics. Learning about the experiences and factors that lead to this higher failure rate is essential toward improving retention in this course. This study examines the relationship between study habits and academic performance for at-risk students in General Chemistry. Students who were in the bottom quartile of SAT math scores were identified as at-risk students. The study habits of General Chemistry students, both those identified as at-risk and those not identified were measured by text message inquiries. The text message asked ‘‘Have you studied for General Chemistry I in the past 48 hours? If so, how did you study?” twice a week throughout a semester. Student responses to the messages were used to calculate the frequency of studying throughout the term. The results from a multiple regression analysis showed that high frequency of studying could mitigate the difference between at-risk and non-at-risk students on final exam scores. Additionally, the quality of studying for six at-risk students was analyzed by student interviews in concert with their text message responses. The results indicated that the quality of studying is not necessarily linked to frequency of studying and both quality and frequency can play a role in at-risk students' academic performance. The results presented offer a path for at-risk students to succeed in General Chemistry and the methodology presented offers a potential avenue for evaluating future efforts to improve student success.

Assumptive Learning Theory values the active process of linking concepts to promote meaningful over rote learning. To promote meaningful learning, assessment practices that encourage the linking of concepts need to be developed and utilized. Creative Exercises (CEs) have the potential to encourage such links. CEs are an open-ended assessment technique where students are given a single prompt and are asked to describe as many statements as they can that are distinct, correct, and relevant to the prompt. This study describes a qualitative investigation into student responses to CEs for evidence of students linking concepts throughout the course and the nature of the linked concepts. The findings indicate considerable interconnections of content in student responses. Further, students’ efforts toward making connections revealed several misconceptions regarding their understanding of the limits of models. CEs are therefore proposed as a means to encourage students to link concepts and to inform instructors about the links made, both correctly and incorrectly. Finally, to determine the prevalence of the incorrect links, a novel assessment technique is proposed based on students' responses to CEs.

Peer-Led Team Learning (PLTL) is a widely disseminated pedagogical reform that employs previously successful undergraduate students, peer leaders, to lead sessions of structured group work in the target class. Numerous studies have evaluated the impact of this reform in various post-secondary chemistry classes. Results from these studies suggest that PLTL may be effective at improving student success in these classes, either through improved performance on common exams or reduced student attrition in the classes. This study seeks to take a broader picture at measuring the impact, by examining the role PLTL plays across a two semester General Chemistry sequence. This includes an analysis of PLTL on students' decision to progress through the two semester sequence, and on PLTL impact on the algorithm-heavy second-semester General Chemistry. The findings suggest that the PLTL implementation is robust in improving student success directly in terms of the target class. However, PLTL had little to no effect on students' decision to continue in the General Chemistry sequence. Additionally, PLTL had little effect on student performance in subsequent courses where the pedagogy returned to lecture-only instruction. The results suggest that PLTL implementation on one course within a sequence would have limited impact, and in order to improve student progress toward graduation, PLTL implementation may have to be curricular wide.

Open-ended assessments, defined as assessments with a large set of possible correct answers, by nature lend themselves to concerns regarding accurate and consistent grading. This article describes one particular open-ended assessment, named Creative Exercises (CE), designed for promoting students' interconnection of concepts in a college general chemistry setting. The article presents evidence concerning several aspects of validity, including the extent scores represent chemistry knowledge and the extent scoring is consistent across three graders. The evidence is also presented in the context of what is known about concept maps, a commonly employed open-ended assessment in chemistry. Implications for the administration of CEs and the appropriateness of measuring students' hierarchical organization of knowledge are also discussed as a result of this comparison.

This study describes the conceptual understanding for a series of fundamental organic concepts by fourth year chemistry students from a midsize, southeastern, state university. Student volunteers (n =19) participated in semi-structured interviews using a think aloud protocol. The interview questions were eleven multiple choice questions selected from the Organic Chemistry examination developed by the Examinations Institute of the Division of Chemical Education, American Chemical Society. The questions were chosen to represent a range of concepts that are fundamental to the organic chemistry course sequence. Analysis of the interview transcripts revealed trends in the students’ knowledge and alternative conceptions. Of particular interest, it was found that some alternative conceptions mirrored those previously seen with students in introductory chemistry, indicating the persistence of such alternative conceptions. Implications for instructional approaches particular to organic chemistry are discussed.