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Pedagogies of engagement (i.e., Peer-Led Teaming Learning, Problem-Based Learning, and Process-Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning) are active learning approaches used in postsecondary chemistry courses. In this study, we use data from a national survey of postsecondary chemistry instructors in the United States to estimate use of three pedagogies in the course for which the instructor feels they have the most control. We found that 16.6% of these faculties report they are implementing Peer-Led Team Learning (PLTL), 10.6% report implementing Problem-Based Learning (PBL), and 10.7% report implementing Process-Oriented Guided-Inquiry Learning (POGIL). We compare use of select teaching practices and other active learning strategies with implementation of PLTL, PBL, and POGIL. Additionally, we use items from the survey to understand course, institution, and instructor characteristics associated with use. Key findings include that lower-level courses and courses with large enrollments are the most likely places for PLTL to be implemented and that instructors who are not on the tenure track are more likely to implement PLTL and POGIL than tenured/tenure-track instructors. Instructors who report implementing PLTL and PBL have more student-centered beliefs about teaching and learning, while instructors who report implementing POGIL have more teacher-centered beliefs about learning, albeit all with small effect sizes. Implications are offered for how instructors, researchers, developers and disseminators of these pedagogies can use our results to inform their practices and efforts.

Student interviews have found an increasingly important place in the educational research landscape. They are used to create and validate assessments and concept inventories, as well as to more clearly elucidate student thinking. One-on-one interviews are most often completed in person at the researcher's or student's institution. There are significant advantages, however, of conducting interviews remotely including access to more varied populations, travel-related time and cost savings, and the ability of a single researcher to efficiently collect data at multiple institutions. This paper presents a description of a remote interview process along with details of ways to maintain commonality with its in-person analog. Our research provides evidence that the efficacy of results is maintained and that remote interviews provide a viable alternative to more costly and time-intensive on-site interviews. These results are particularly timely as ways to enable graduate education and research to continue during the COVID-19 pandemic response.

The aim of this study is to offer a current snapshot of flipped classroom use in postsecondary chemistry education. Data from a national survey of chemistry faculty members in the United States formed the basis of an investigation into the instructional contexts in which flipped classroom pedagogies are employed in postsecondary chemistry education. Our results reveal an association between flipped classroom use and the level at which a course is taught; in addition, our results provide support for the utility of flipped classrooms as a means for incorporation of pedagogical practices focused on active and collaborative learning.

ACS Examinations provide a lens through which to examine historical changes in topic coverage via analyses of course-specific examinations. This study is an extension of work completed previously by the ACS Exams Research Staff and collaborators in general chemistry, organic chemistry, and physical chemistry to explore content changes in the principal courses of the postsecondary chemistry curriculum. In this study, we consider how inorganic chemistry content coverage has varied over a 55-year period since the first inorganic chemistry ACS Examination was released in 1961. A total of 860 items was evaluated on the basis of problem type (i.e., algorithmic, conceptual, or recall), use of visual-spatial or reference components, and content coverage. Our analyses identify core content areas in the inorganic chemistry curriculum, consistent with those reported in faculty surveys. Each examination also contained questions addressing a variety of specialty areas that vary widely within the discipline between 1961 and 2016. Unlike the results from historical reviews of general chemistry and organic chemistry ACS Examinations, we observe great variability across the 13 inorganic chemistry examinations with an absence of strong trends in inclusion or exclusion of problem types, visual-spatial or reference components, or content across the 13 exams analyzed. Our results offer a framework for using historical ACS Examinations as a tool to make decisions about the future of content coverage in postsecondary inorganic chemistry education.

The electrochemical synthesis of mesostructured nickel hydroxide [Ni(OH)2] films in dilute surfactant solutions are studied. Lemellar mesostructured Ni(OH)2 films are obtained with only anionic surfactant sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) as the template.

A series of micelle-templated mesoporous nickel hydroxide films were prepared by electrochemical deposition from dilute surfactant solutions by using different types of template and by varying plating solvent composition. Lamellar mesostructured Ni(OH)2 films are obtained with only anionic surfactant sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) as the template. In particular, a unique cooperative assembly fashion, that is, the combination between Ni2+ and a complex composed of the primary template SDS and a cosurfactant, such as triblock poly(ethylene oxide) - poly(propylene oxide) - poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO - PPO - PEO) copolymers and poly- (ethylene glycol), was explored, by which two-dimensional hexagonal mesoporous Ni(OH)2 films were electrodeposited. Meanwhile, the deposition medium also plays a crucial role in determining the mesostructure of Ni(OH)2 films. For the composite nickel hydroxide films deposited from aqueous solution or dilute aqueous solution of ethylene glycol (<20 wt %) in the presence of SDS or the SDS-poly(alkylene oxide) polymer complexes, a mixed lamellar phase with d001 37.4 Å and d001* = 28.5 Å was obtained. However, single lamellar phase with d001 = 37.4 Å was electrodeposited from concentrated aqueous solutions of ethylene glycol (≥ 20 wt %). Furthermore, such deposition baths have access to hexagonal mesoporous nickel hydroxide films with d100 = 37.4 Å at 70 °C with the SDS-poly(alkylene oxide) polymer complexes as the templates. Within the potential window for Ni(QH)2, the morphology and quality of mesostructured films are significantly dependent on the deposition potential, while the mesostructures of the composite films always remain unchanged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]