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Investigating the Impact of College-Level General Chemistry Curricula on General Chemistry Students' Conceptions of Organic Acidity and Oxidation-Reduction

<p>Chemistry students have historically struggled with conceptually understanding organic acidity and oxidation-reduction. Previously dominant approaches towards remediating students? misconceptions has been challenged by Explanatory Coexistence, which eludes to a competition between conceptions held within individuals. Conceptual reprioritization may be associated with the restructuring of conceptual dominance hierarchies, which may occur once a conceptual competition concludes. Investigation of conceptual reprioritizations of general chemistry students? conceptions of organic acidity and oxidation-reduction performed across multiple demographics using Rasch analysis, student interviews and argumentation quality assessment. Student samples belonged to two different general chemistry courses that used different curricula. One used a reform-based curriculum, that compared to the traditional curriculum, focused on discussion and argumentation. Student conceptions were captured, and tracked via repeated measures, using the ACIDI and ROXCI concept inventories. Results indicated both inventories were capable of detecting conceptual reprioritizations after instruction from both curricula. Student achievement was consistent across multiple demographic characteristics. Evidence of argumentation quality and its association with conceptual reprioritizations of organic acidity and dominant, scientifically accepted redox conceptions was collected. Individual interviews suggested conceptual reprioritizations may be attributed to their respective curricula, while also adding insight into thought processes that arose while taking both inventories. Suggestions for future work is also discussed, highlighting the development of community standards, ACIDI and ROXCI responses databases to assess general student representation, and modification of both inventories.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:PROQUEST/oai:pqdtoai.proquest.com:10932210
Date27 December 2018
CreatorsRodriguez, Christian
PublisherState University of New York at Stony Brook
Source SetsProQuest.com
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typethesis

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