An Investigation into Freshman Chemistry Teacher Students' Difficulty in Performing Chemistry Calculations
Abstract
Chemical calculations are considered one of the critical areas at lower - (Bilek et al., 2019) as well as upper-secondary schools (Rusek, 2014). Naturally, these are also reflected on the university level.
In (chemistry) teacher training, however, these skills need to be deepened as they are supposed to facilitate students' learning of chemistry calculations. The research is focused on freshman chemistry pre-service teachers' ability to solve chemistry calculation tasks.
According to Scott (2012), this ability is affected by the students' mathematical skills. The pre-service chemistry teachers (N = 32) were given 2 sets of two-tier tests.
The first focused on chemical calculations, the second on analogous mathematical operations. Whereas 56% students reached over 50% of the maximal test-score in the maths test, only 3 students (9%) reached over 50% in the chemical calculation test.
Medians of the students' performance self-assessment show neutral values in both tests, i.e. the students are neither confident nor unconfident with their results. The performed Wilcoxon test results show the students' results differ between the chemical calculation and maths tests (p < .001).
The effect size of the difference is large (.585). The students' mathematical skills seem not to be the main reason for their underperformance in the chemistry calculation test.
Students' failure is therefore probably caused by other intervening factors which must be considered and further investigated.