Investigating the Study Habits that Lead to Success in First Year Chemistry

Abstract

KEYWORDS: motivation, attendance, performance, grades, study habits

SUBTHEME: Modes of Learning BACKGROUND AND AIMS

To improve our teaching, we need to understand our students better. Our perception of the students we teach is that they rely heavily on past exam papers, they have poor time-management that leads to cramming, and they gain superficial understandings of the material that we expect them to know.

We are working through a process to transform our teaching practices, aiming to offer teaching materials and modes that promote effective learning practices, and will build on our students’ existing learning strategies. This study aims to gain more nuance in the picture we have of our students’ practices, so that we can identify the best techniques and encourage their use, as well as set up first year students with skills that will lead to success in later years.

DESIGN AND METHODS

Our research has studied over 500 students and academics via a combination of surveys, interviews, and observations. This data collection has taken place from July 2023 to June 2024.

From this data, we will present results from a mixed methods study that included a large student survey (n = 237), a longitudinal student study (n = 30) and interviews and observations of academics (n = 7). We adapted the Classroom Observation Protocol for Undergraduate Students (Smith et al., 2013) for the observational part of the study for a quantitative analysis of teaching behavior.

RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS

We have categorized the sample of students according to their high school and tertiary results. Surprisingly, students who performed very well in secondary school are the least likely to attend university lectures. We also found that there was a statistically significant relationship (p-value < 0.00001) between the exam mark students expected to achieve and their actual result. We will particularly focus on students’ motivation, approaches and time commitment and the way these are linked with their final exam marks.

REFERENCES

Smith, M. K., Jones, F. H. M., Gilbert S. L., Wieman, C. E. (2013) The Classroom Observation Protocol for Undergraduate Students (COPUS): A New Instrument to Characterise University STEM Classroom Practices. Life Sciences Education, 12(4), 618-627.