CHEMX : assessing cognitive expectations for learning chemistry

Abstract

The heart of teaching and learning chemistry is the ability of the teacher to provide experiences that share a conceptually abstract, mathematically-rich subject with novice learners. This includes not only chemistry concepts, but also knowledge about how to learn chemistry. The cognitive expectations that students possess for learning chemistry in the university classroom impact their success in doing so. Physics education research has explored the idea of student expectations with regards to learning physics, resulting in the development of the MPEX (Maryland Physics Expectations) Survey. Unfortunately, up until this point chemists have not had the means of measuring the cognitive expectations that students have for learning chemistry - this has changed with the creation of CHEMX (the Chemistry Expectations Survey). The present study details the development of the CHEMX Survey and how it was used to measure the change in cognitive expectations that students experience as they proceed through the courses required of a typical undergraduate chemistry degree. Results show students' cognitive expectations only slightly change during the first semester of general chemistry before sharply declining during the second. This downward trend is reversed during the sophomore and junior year.