Das Ziel der Arbeit ist die Darstellung der preußischen Mittelschule für den Zeitraum von 1872 bis 1945. Neben der strukturell-curricularen Entwicklung dieser Schulform werden die Bereiche ‚Chemieunterricht’ und ‚Lehrerausbildung’ schwerpunktmäßig untersucht. Vorgeschaltet ist eine Analyse und Darstellung der zur Mittelschule hinführenden Entwicklung mit ihren politischen, wirtschaftlichen und sozialen Bedingungen. <br><br> Die für die Strukturierung der Arbeit gewählte Phaseneinteilung orientiert an den bildungspolitischen Zäsuren, die durch die jeweiligen staatlichen ‚Bestimmungen’ charakterisiert sind. Mit diesen in den Jahren 1872, 1910, 1925, 1938 und 1942 vorgelegten Bestimmungen wurde das Mittelschulwesen jeweils neu geordnet. <br><br> Schwerpunkt der benutzten Quellen ist, die Verbandszeitschrift der Mittelschullehrer, die „Die Mittelschule“. Weiter wurden zeitgenössische Quellen und Literatur sowie pädagogische Zeitschriften für die Analysen benutzt. <br><br> Untersuchungsschwerpunkt ist die Darstellung der preußischen Mittelschule unter dem Aspekt der bildungspolitischen Institutionalisierung im Jahre 1872. Ein weiterer Untersuchungsschwerpunkt ist der Chemieunterricht. Als bedeutungsvoll für diesen Unterricht müssen die Diskussionen im Untersuchungszeitraum gesehen werden, die über inhaltliche Fragen und die methodische Gestaltung des Unterrichts geführt wurden. Der Einsatz der Schulbücher wird hierbei besonders berücksichtigt. <br><br> Die Situation der Lehrer wird unter dem Aspekt ihrer Ausbildung untersucht. Als Mittelschullehrer wurden vornehmlich Volksschullehrer eingesetzt, die sich autodidaktisch auf die Prüfung zum Mittelschullehrer vorbereiten mussten. Die Verweigerung einer identitätsstiftenden schulformbezogenen Lehrerausbildung hat der Mittelschule die Möglichkeit genommen, sich frühzeitig zu einer selbständig-unabhängigen Schulform zu entwickeln. Bedeutungsvoll ist das festgestellte Verhalten der Lehrerschaft dieser Schulform in den unterschiedlichen politischen Systemen. <br><br> In den zeitlichen Phasen steht die Mittelschule als eine zwischen Elementarschule und Gymnasium sich emanzipierende Schulform. Die Ambivalenz in der Stellung äußert sich in dem wechselvollen Verhalten zwischen Standesschule und Öffnung für andere gesellschaftliche Schichten. Im Zusammenhang mit der Verweigerung der Berechtigungen muss die Mittelschule als Anstalt zur Befriedigung der Bildungsansprüche mittlerer Schichten gesehen werden. Sie wurde aber auch als schulischer Abwehrmechanismus der oberen Schichten gegenüber unteren gesellschaftlichen Schichten instrumentalisiert. / The aim of the paper is a description of the Prussian secondary school between 1872 and 1945. Besides the structural-curricular development of this structure of school, there is a focus on investigating the areas ‚chemistry lessons’ and ‚teacher training’. Beforehand is an analysis and description of the development towards secondary school and its political, economical and social circumstances. <br><br> The chosen disposition of stages is oriented on breaks in education policy, which are characterized by particular governmental regulations. With the new regulations in 1872, 1910, 1925, 1938 and 1942 the secondary school system was reordered at each time. <br><br> A main source of information is the organisational journal of secondary school teachers „Die Mittelschule“ (The Secondary School). Furthermore contemporary sources and literature as well as educational journals were used for analysis. <br><br> The main focus of the investigation is on the description of the Prussian secondary school under the aspect of institutionalization of education policy in 1872. Another field of attention is education in chemistry. Especially meaningful for this are discussions about content-related questions and methodical design of teaching within the period of investigation. The use of school books is hereby especially considered. <br><br> The situation of the teachers was investigated under the aspect of their training. Elementary school teachers were appointed primarily as secondary school teachers. They had to prepare autodidactically for the exam as secondary school teacher. Because of the refusal of an identity forming school oriented training of teachers, secondary school lacked the possibility to develop early to an autonomous school design. The behaviour of the teachers of this school form within the different political systems is significant. <br><br> Within a time frame secondary school stands as an emancipated form of school between elementary school and high school. The ambivalence of the position is shown in changes of the role model between school for a particular social class and the opening for other social stratum. Related to refusal of allocation of educational competences secondary school has to be seen as an institution to satisfy middle class claim on education. But it was also exploited as an academic defence mechanism of upper class against near-illiterate, lower social classes.

Undersökningar visar att lärare, till skillnad från många andra professionella yrkesgrupper, sällan refererar till teorier när de anger vilka motiv deras praktiska verksamhet har. Den kollegiala diskussionen bland lärare är sällan av teoretisk karaktär utan handlar ofta om praktiska förhållanden . En stor del av lärarkunskapen verkar vara ”tyst”.” Tyst kunskap ska här förstås som erfarenhetsbaserad kunskap som uppnås genom praktiserande verksamhet, en typ av förtrogenhetskunskap som kräver överblick över situationen man befinner sig i. I det här arbetet studerar jag relationen mellan lärarens reflektioner om sin egen praktik i relation till lärarens syn på elevernas progression under kemilaborationer. Syftet med undersökningen är att ge några bilder av tankemönster man möter i diskussionen kring undervisningen i kemi. Tankemönster i samband med undervisning ses här som delar av lärarens tysta kunskap. Den empiriska undersökningen baseras på intervjuer med kemilärare på gymnasie- och högstadieskolor. I undersökningen identifieras några aspekter av kemilärares tysta kunskap i relation till elevers lärandeprocess under kemilaborationer. Resultaten visar en koppling till litteratur och forskning inom området för hur effektiv undervisning kan bedrivas. / Investigations show that teachers, in contrast to many other professionals, seldom refer to theories in discussions about the motives in their practice. Professional discussions among teachers often deal with practical matters and rarely about theoretical issues. Major parts of teachers’ knowledge seem to be tacit. Tacit knowledge should be understood as knowledge received by practical experience, a type of confidential knowledge. In this work I have studied the relation between teachers’ reflections about their own practice and the teachers’ views of the students’ progression in learning during laboratory courses. The aim of this paper is to find some of the common thoughts shared by chemistry teachers, which are expressed when describing their practice. These kinds of “mind patterns” are here comprehended as part of the teachers’ tacit knowledge. The empirical investigation is based on interviews with chemistry teachers in upper level of compulsory school and in upper secondary school. The results of the investigation indicate connections to research and literature about effective learning.

The purpose of this study is to probe whether there is a significant effect of 5E learning cycle model as compared to traditional instruction and gender on tenth grade students&rsquo / understanding in the particulate nature of matter concepts and their epistemological beliefs and to investigate whether there is an impact of 5E learning cycle model and traditional instruction in promoting the understanding of the nature of science. Pilot study was performed for the instruments in the between April and June 2009. Treatment was conducted between October and December 2009. Participants were 113 students from one high school in Ankara. Two experimental groups and two control groups were randomly formed from four classes. Before and after the treatment, pre-tests and post-tests were administered and semi-structured interviews were conducted. Treatment was executed throughout the five weeks. While 5E learning cycle model was used in the experimental group, traditional instruction was used in the control group. According to MANCOVA results, there was a significant mean difference between groups on the collective dependent variables of the particulate nature of matter concepts and epistemological beliefs toward chemistry and chemistry courses. This effect was favor of the experimental groups. Also, there was no significant mean difference between post-test mean scores of girls and boys and for the interaction of treatment with gender on the collective dependent variables of the particulate nature of matter concepts and epistemological beliefs toward chemistry and chemistry courses. Moreover, the mean scores of students in the experimental group on the understanding of the nature of science were higher than those of students in the control group. Responses of the students in the interviews supported their responses in the tests.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of 5E learning cycle model compared to traditional teacher-centered instruction on eleventh grade students&rsquo / conceptual understanding of acids and bases concepts and student motivation to learn chemistry. The measuring tools were Three-tier Acids-Bases Test (TABT) and Chemistry Motivation Questionnaire (CMQ). There were two groups, which were the experimental and traditional group, consisting of 78 students. Before the implementation, the tools were administered as pre-tests to both groups and the semi-structured pre-interviews were conducted with eight students to determine students&rsquo / prior knowledge about acids-bases and motivation to learn chemistry. During the implementation, 5E learning cycle model was used in the experimental group and the traditional teacher-centered instruction was used in the traditional group throughout eight weeks. After the implementation, the tools were administered as post-tests to both groups and the semi-structured post-interviews were conducted with the same students to determine their post knowledge about acids-bases and motivation to learn chemistry. Afterwards, the data were analyzed and descriptive and inferential statistics were obtained. Based on MANCOVA results, there was a statistical significant mean difference between the groups in favor of experimental group. Similarly, the students from experimental group scored higher motivation and this difference was found to be statistically significant. The results were analyzed in terms of gender as well, and there was found no statistically significant differences between the post-test mean scores of girls and boys for the effect of the implementation on understanding of acids-bases concepts or motivation to learn. The inferential statistics results were also supported with the students interviews.

The aim of this thesis was to construct undergraduate chemistry students’ conceptions of enthalpy and its change, internal energy and its change, heat and work. Conceptions make it possible to identify students’ problems with the taught content. How students’ exam results are affected by qualitative/conceptual questions was also investigated. Two chemistry teachers in both secondary school and higher education participated in the first study. Thereafter, three empirical studies with undergraduate students were done, including a total number of 64, 22 and 10 participants. Methods and tasks from chemistry education research were used and new tasks were developed during the research process. Answers to questionnaires, hand-ins, exams and interview transcripts were analyzed qualitatively. The constructed conceptions were descriptive categories divided into two types, the underlying and the logical. Nine conceptions were constructed. Students expressed enthalpy change as heat at constant pressure like a mantra, since their responses to specific issues contradicted the explicitly used definition. An artifact was necessary to identify work and expansion work and technical work were primarily described as functions of volume. Enthalpy and enthalpy change were considered as a form of energy or as interchangeable. Students argued that enthalpy change and heat were the same, since the reactions were the same, regardless of constant pressure or constant volume. Enthalpy change was heat when no work was done. One possible explanation was that students argued that ΔU was the energy transferred as heat. Students’ interpretations of the tasks clarified that tasks can be further developed. On three of four exams students succeeded better when the qualitative/conceptual questions were excluded. The sample size affected the t-tests and only one result was significant. Implications for teaching and research are given. / Syftet med avhandlingen var att konstruera kemistudenters föreställningar om entalpi och dess förändring, inre energi och dess förändring samt värme och arbete. Föreställningar gör det möjligt att identifiera problemområden då ämnesinnehållet undervisas. Hur studenternas resultat på tentamen påverkades av att kvalitativa/konceptuella frågor inkluderades, undersöks också. En studie med två kemilärare på både gymnasiet och inom högre utbildning samt tre studier med totalt 64, 22 och 10 kemistudenter, på olika utbildningsnivåer inom högre utbildning, utfördes. Metoder och uppgifter från ämnesdidaktisk forskning användes och nya uppgifter utvecklades under forskningsprocessen. Svar på enkät-, inlämnings- och tentamensuppgifter samt intervjutranskript analyserades kvalitativt. Föreställningarna som konstruerades var beskrivande kategorier som delats in i två grupper, de underliggande och de logiska föreställningarna. Resultatet visade att studenterna uttryckte att entalpiförändringen är värme vid konstant tryck. Det var likt ett mantra eftersom de samtidigt bortsåg från uttrycket i resten av sina svar. För att arbete ska identifieras krävdes en artefakt och när tryckvolymarbete samt tekniskt arbete beskrevs var det primärt som en funktion av volymen. Entalpi och entalpiförändring tillämpades av studenterna som en energiform eller så var innebörden av begreppen densamma. Studenterna beskrev att samma reaktion ger samma entalpiförändring och värme oberoende av konstant tryck och volym. Vidare beskrevs entalpiförändringen som värmet när inget arbete sker. En möjlig förklaring var att studenterna argumenterade att ΔU var energiöverföringen som värme. Studenternas tolkningar av frågorna tydliggör att frågorna fortfarande kan utvecklas. På tre av fyra tentamina lyckades studenterna bättre när de kvalitativa/konceptuella frågorna exkluderades. t-testen utfördes på gränsen till sitt giltighetsområde och endast ett resultat var signifikant. Även om entalpi och dess förändring är viktiga inom teoribildningen visade empirin att studenterna inte kände till syftet med att införa begreppen i teoribildningen. Implikationer för undervisning och forskning ges.

Chemistry is often claimed to be difficult, irrelevant, and uninteresting to school students. Even students who enjoy doing science often have problems seeing themselves as being scientists. This thesis explores and challenges the negative perception of chemistry by investigating upper secondary students’ views on the subject. Based on students’ ideas for improving chemistry education to make the subject more interesting and meaningful, new learning approaches rooted in context-based learning (CBL) are presented. CBL approaches are applied in several countries to enhance interest, de-emphasise rote learning, and improve students’ higher order thinking. Students’ views on upper secondary school chemistry classes in combination with their problem- solving strategies and application of chemistry content knowledge when solving context-based chemistry tasks were investigated using a mixed methods approach. Questionnaire responses, written solutions to chemistry problems, classroom observations, and think-aloud interviews with upper secondary students at the Natural Science Programme and with experts working on context- based chemistry tasks were analysed to obtain a general overview and explore specific issues in detail. Several students were identified who had positive feelings about chemistry, found it interesting, and chose to continue with it beyond the compulsory level, mainly with the aim of future university studies or simply because they enjoyed it. Their suggestions for improving school chemistry by connecting it to everyday life prompted an exploration of CBL approaches. Studies on the cognitive learning outcomes arising from the students’ work on context-based tasks revealed that school chemistry heavily emphasises the recall of memorised facts. However, there is evidence of higher order thinking when students’ problem-solving processes are scaffolded using hints based on the Model of Hierarchical Complexity in Chemistry (MHC-C). In addition, the contextualisation of problems is identified as something that supports learning rather than distracting students. To conclude, the students in this thesis are interested in chemistry and enjoy chemistry education, and their motives for choosing to study chemistry at the post-compulsory level are related to their aspirations; students’ identity formation is important for their choices. Because students are accustomed to recalling facts and solving chemistry problems that have “one single correct answer”, they find more open problems that demand higher order thinking (e.g. knowledge transfer) unfamiliar and complex, suggesting that such processes should be practiced more often in school chemistry. / Kemi är ett skolämne som generellt anses vara både svårt, irrelevant och ointressant för ungdomar. Trots att det ändå finns ungdomar som uppskattar naturvetenskap i allmänhet och kemi i synnerhet, har de ofta problem att se sig själva som naturvetare eller kemister. Denna avhandling undersöker och ifrågasätter den negativa bilden av kemiämnet genom att till en början studera gymnasieelevers syn på kemi. Med utgångspunkt från naturvetarelevers förslag för att förbättra kemiundervisningen och göra ämnet mer intressant och meningsfullt, anknyter avhandlingen därefter till kontextbaserad kemi. Kontextbaserade kurser används i flera länder för att öka elevernas intresse, minska fokuseringen på utantillkunskaper och utveckla elevernas mer avancerade tänkande; med andra ord med målet att uppnå ett meningsfullt lärande. Vid kontextbaserade angreppssätt utgår man från ett sammanhang (kontexten), ofta något personligt eller samhälleligt, som ska vara relevant och intressant. Från dessa kontexter koncentreras därefter undervisningen på de ämneskunskaper man behöver ha för att förstå sammanhanget (s.k. need-to-know). Syftet med avhandlingen är att undersöka naturvetarelevers syn på gymnasiekemin, både deras intresse för ämnet och deras skäl att välja det naturvetenskapliga programmet på gymnasiet, samt elevernas problemlösningsförmåga och användande av ämneskunskaper när de löser kontextbaserade kemiuppgifter. Skälet att studera naturvetarelever på gymnasiet är att dessa elever uppfattas som möjliga framtida naturvetare eftersom de själva har valt naturvetenskaplig inriktning efter den obligatoriska grundskolan. Med hjälp av olika metoder (enkäter, klassrums- observationer, skriftliga lösningar till kemiuppgifter och intervjuer med både elever och experter som löser kemiuppgifter) har analyser genomförts för att dels får en allmän överblick, dels för att utforska specifika delar i detalj både gällande kognitiva och affektiva aspekter av lärande. Resultaten visar att flertalet elever har en positiv inställning till kemi, många tycker att ämnet är intressant och har valt att fortsätta läsa kemi efter den obligatoriska grundskolan främst med målet att studera vidare på universitetsnivå, men också eftersom de specifikt uppskattar kemi. Gymnasieeleverna lyfter fram lärarna som viktiga och lärarstyrda kemilektioner anses positivt, speciellt om lärarna är strukturerade i sin undervisning. Ett vanligt skäl till att välja naturvetenskapsprogrammet är också att man aktivt väljer utbildning med utgångspunkt från vilken skola man vill gå på, något som i denna avhandling tolkas som ett identitetsskapande. Elevernas förslag för att förbättra skolkemin genom att anknyta kemin till vardagen låg till grund för avhandlingens fortsatta inriktning mot kontextbaserade angreppssätt. Analyser av elevernas kognitiva resultat när de löser kontextbaserade kemiuppgifter visar att dagens skolkemi tydligt fokuserar på att memorera faktakunskaper. Eleverna är vana att använda utantillkunskaper när de löser kemiuppgifter eftersom uppgifterna, enligt eleverna, efterfrågar ”det rätta svaret”. Däremot visar studierna också att ett mer avancerat tänkande kan uppnås när elevernas problemlösning stöds av hjälp och ledtrådar som baseras på ett specifikt ramverk, MHC-C (Model of Hierarchical Complexity in Chemistry). När det gäller ämneskunskaperna som krävs för att lösa de kontextbaserade kemiuppgifterna är vissa kemibegrepp viktiga tröskelbegrepp (sk. threshold concepts). Med hjälp av medvetenhet om tröskelbegrepp, som exempelvis polaritet och elektronegativitet för löslighetsuppgifter inom den organiska kemin, kan en större helhetsförståelse för övergripande begrepp (crosscutting disciplinary concepts) som förhållandet mellan kemiska ämnens struktur och egenskaper förhoppningsvis uppnås. När det gäller affektiva resultat anser eleverna att kontexterna i uppgifterna både var intressanta och relevanta, främst när en personlig anknytning var tydlig. Dessutom visade sig kontexterna i uppgifterna vara positiva för lärandet, inte en distraktionsfaktor. Sammanfattningsvis konstateras att svenska elever på naturvetenskaps- programmet är intresserade av kemi och uppskattar kemiundervisningen, speciellt om kemin knyts till vardagen och att lärarna har en tydlig struktur i sin undervisning. Elevernas skäl att välja fortsatta kemistudier efter den obligatoriska grundskolan kan knytas till deras utbildningssträvan men också att elevers identitetsskapande är viktigt för deras gymnasieval. Med hjälp av kontextbaserade angreppssätt kan kemiundervisningen göras mer intressant och relevant samtidigt som elevernas problemlösningsförmåga kan utvecklas. När eleverna möter mer öppna frågor som kräver förklaringar och resonemang är de ovana vid detta och uppfattar uppgifterna komplicerade, samtidigt som de uppskattar denna typ av uppgifter eftersom de uppfattas relevanta och intressanta. Slutsatsen blir att elevernas förmåga till problemlösning av öppna frågor som både kräver faktakunskaper men också förklaringar och resonemang måste tränas oftare inom ramen för skolans kemi för att utveckla elevernas meningsfulla lärande.

Chemistry is taken, in the words of a significant portion of high-school students, as "difficult, complicated and boring", causing various manifestations of discontent among students, when the need to study it. This research proposes the investigation of this relationship between this subject and the students, according to the Theory of Social Representations. It is proposed to identify the social representations of chemistry subjects in the individuals studied, the influence of social representations over the relation of students participating in the research and chemistry with differences and similarities, with regard to social representations, there are between the schools in study. Methodologically, we chose to use focus groups with students from the two Centers of Excellence located in Aracaju, to collect the data necessary to accomplish the study. The results demonstrate the construction of social representations which show that the distance of students toward the subject arises, significantly, because of the need for greater investment in their study, without, however, the guarantee of their learning. / A disciplina química é tida, no dizer de uma parcela significativa dos alunos do nível médio, como difícil, complicada e chata , ocasionando diversas manifestações de desagrado entre os discentes quando da necessidade de estudá-la. A presente pesquisa tem como proposta a investigação dessa relação com a referida disciplina, por parte desses estudantes, à luz da Teoria das Representações Sociais. Propõe-se a identificar as representações sociais da disciplina química entre os sujeitos estudados; qual a influência das representações sociais na relação dos alunos participantes da pesquisa com a disciplina química e quais as diferenças e semelhanças, no que diz respeito às representações sociais, entre as escolas estudadas. Metodologicamente, optou-se pela utilização de grupos focais com alunos dos dois Centros de Excelência localizados em Aracaju, para a coleta dos dados necessários à efetivação do estudo. Os resultados apresentam a construção de representações sociais que demonstram que o afastamento dos alunos em relação à disciplina decorre, significativamente, da necessidade de maior investimento, pelos estudantes, no estudo da disciplina química, sem, no entanto, a garantia do seu aprendizado.

More graduates in science, technology, engineering, and mathmetics (STEM) fields are needed to keep our nation’s preeminance in the global fields of technology and science. However, fewer than 40% of students who intend to major in STEM fields when entering college complete a STEM degree. Therefore, it is important to explore factors to improve student persistence in STEM fields at the college level as well as to understand the interrelationship between student motivation, academic achievement, and persistence. Motivation is strongly associated with student achievement and persistence; meanwhile, academic achievement can also affect persistence. Self-determination theory (SDT) represents a framework of several mini-theories to explore how social context interacts with people’s motivation. The three studies in this dissertation aim to investigate student motivation using instruments based on SDT and to explore the viability of the theory in a reform environment. In Study 1, the Academic Motivation Scale – Chemistry (AMS-Chemistry) was developed as an instrument based on the self-determination continuum to measure seven types of student motivation toward specific chemistry courses. Data gathered with AMS in college chemistry courses showed that AMS was a suitable candidate for modification. Based on expert panel discussions and cognitive interviews, AMS-Chemistry was developed. AMS-Chemistry was administered to university students in a general chemistry course as pre/post-test. Internal structure validity evidence was also collected. Results showed that students were more extrinsically motivated toward chemistry on average, and there was an overall motivational difference favoring males with a medium effect size. Correlation studies revealed that intrinsic motivation subscales were positively associated with student academic achievement at the end of the semester. Results also showed that students who persisted in class attendance scored significant differently on the set of motivation subscales. This study suggests that AMS-Chemistry is easy to administer and can be used to better understand students’ motivation status and how it might change across the curriculum. Faculty interested in promoting student intrinsic motivation may also use AMS-Chemistry to evaluate the impact of their efforts. In Study 2, AMS-Chemistry was used to examine student motivation and determine how motivation is related to academic achievement at different points in time in organic chemistry courses. This study was conducted in two organic chemistry courses where one course was primarily lecture-based and the other implemented flipped classroom and peer-lead team learning (Flip-PLTL) pedagogies. Descriptive statistics showed that students in both courses were more extrinsically motivated and their motivation moved in negative directions across the semester. Factorial multivariate analysis of covariance revealed a main effect of pedagogical approach. Students in the Flip-PLTL environment were significantly less lack of motivation toward chemistry at the end of the semester while controlling for the motivation pre-test scores; however, there was no evidence for sex main effect and interaction effect between sex and pedagogical approach. Correlation results revealed variable relationships between motivation subscales and academic achievement at different time points. In general, intrinsic motivation subscales were significantly and positively correlated with student academic achievement; Amotivation was negatively correlated with academic achievement. The findings in this study showed the importance of Flip-PLTL pedagogies in improving student motivation toward chemistry. In Study 3, students’ perceptions of basic psychological needs and intrinsic motivation were studied using instruments in accordance with SDT in first-year college chemistry courses. The interrelationships among the variables were also investigated. Students’ self-reported scores showed that they had positive perceptions with respect to the motivational variables where Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning (POGIL) was being implemented. Students’ written comments also provided evidence for their positive perceptions. Structural equation modeling results showed that it was viable to use SDT in the POGIL context, since the three basic needs explained a significant amount of variance in intrinsic motivation. The findings could help instructors become more aware of students’ perceptions of the learning environments in active learning settings, and therefore, instructors wishing to target student engagement are encouraged to implement active learning pedagogies, such as POGIL. The research studies presented in this work contribute to our understanding of motivation as an important factor influencing student persistence in STEM fields in both traditional classroom and different active learning environments at the college level. Each study provided psychometric evidence for the use of instruments based on SDT in college chemistry courses. Chemistry educators can use these assessments to understand the nuances of student motivation. Findings from these assessments can then be used to design strategies to help students learn and/or to be more motivated toward chemistry. Also, this work highlights the importance of looking at the motivation of different groups of students, such as the underrepresented students, because their response trends may be different. Being aware of students’ different needs will help chemistry educators to understand how we can better increase students’ intrinsic motivation in our chemistry courses.

A study was conducted to investigate the relationship of students' concept integration and achievement with time spent within a topic and across related topics in a large first semester guided inquiry organic chemistry class. Achievement was based on evidence of algorithmic problem solving; and concept integration was based on demonstrated performance explaining, applying, and relating concepts to each other. Twelve individual assessments were made of both variables over three related topics - acid/base, nucleophilic substitution and electrophilic addition reactions. Measurements included written, free response and ordered multiple answer questions using a classroom response system. Results demonstrated that students can solve problems without conceptual understanding. A second study was conducted to compare the students' learning approach at the beginning and end of the course. Students were scored on their preferences for a deep, strategic, or surface approach to learning based on their responses to a pre and post survey. Results suggest that students significantly decreased their preference for a surface approach during the semester. Analysis of the data collected was performed to determine the relationship between students' learning approach and their concept integration and achievement in this class. Results show a correlation between a deep approach and concept integration and a strong negative correlation between a surface approach and concept integration.

The thesis is devoted to organometallic chemistry teaching problematics at Czech secondary schools. In this thesis it is analyzed what space in the schooling is given this theme by educational programs. Furthermore, the thesis are in terms of the theme of organometallic compounds analyzed secondary school textbooks commonly used chemical education, and there is estimated interest of teachers for the newly prepared materials on this topic as well. As a reaction to the conclusions of the analyzes was prepared explanatory text on the topic of organometallic compounds intended for teachers who can use it for their own learning and to prepare their lessons as well. The second main output of this work is a set of test tasks relating to the created explanatory text of organometallic compounds. These questions are not only intended for testing mastering the topic of organometallic compounds by pupils, but also serves as an mastery-level proposal of the topic that students especially in grammar schools and secondary vocational schools should achieve. Explanatory text and a set of test tasks were verified by teachers teaching chemistry through direct interview method and then there were incorporated comments emerged in the interviews into them. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)