The Factors that Affect USM Student Experience in the General Chemistry Classroom

Chemistry has a reputation for being a challenging discipline for many students. Enrollment in chemistry courses is much lower than that of other disciplines due to “chemophobia”, which can be caused by many aspects of chemistry.1-2To increase enrollment in chemistry, it is important to understand how to improve the student experience in the classroom. To determine the factors that affect a student’s experience in their current chemistry class, the Chemistry Attitudes and Experiences Questionnaire (CAEQ) was adapted and given to students in General Chemistry I and II classes at The University of Southern Mississippi. Descriptive statistics, an Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), and linear regression analysis were used to determine which factors have a statistically significant impact on current chemistry class experience. Two case studies were analyzed with one student that attended an advanced Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) high school and one student that transferred from a community college. Thematic analysis was done on case study transcriptions and provided additional information that supported the quantitative data. It was found that a student’s self-efficacy, previous lecture experience, and previous lab experience were the only factors that affected their experience in their current chemistry class. Findings from this study can be used to increase positive student experiences in the chemistry classroom, which will result in higher academic achievement in chemistry.