Exploring chemistry professors’ methods of highlighting the relevancy of chemistry: Opportunities, obstacles, and suggestions to improve students’ motivation in science classrooms

Abstract

This study focused on inquiring into undergraduate chemistry professors’ efforts in North America to increase student motivation and interest in the subject and the feasibility of methods that connect students to real world applications and societal issues related to chemistry. A survey was distributed to chemistry instructors at post-secondary institutions across the United States and Canada asking about the usage of methods and tools to deliver content aiming at raising students’ perception of the relevance of learning chemistry (N = 124). The instrument also asked about instructors’ perceptions related to assessment, as well as their perception of how their students value the integration of socio-scientific issues into the curriculum. A chi-squared analysis was performed to identify groups of individuals whose responses were disproportionate, compared to the distribution of responses from the sample, in order to identify any unique occurrences. In general, the usage of real-world applications and socio-scientific issues in post-secondary chemistry courses tends to be related to instructors’ value of the role of these topics in their courses, comfort level with the topics, and preferred approaches to developing and implementing the course materials.