8 WHAT FACTORS DETERMINE STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT IN FIRST-YEAR COLLEGE CHEMISTRY?

JOHN P. McQUARY, HENRIETTA V. WILLIAMS Student Counseling Center JOHN E. WILLARD University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin

Is A student's grade in first year college chemistry iu- fluenced by whether or not he has had high-school chemistry? By the size of town from which he comes? By his ability as evidenced by his scores on achievement tests? Partial answers to these questions have been obtained by analyzing the records of students in two general-chemistry courses a t the University of Wisconsin.

The two courses considered are those for students not

lectures, two one-hour quiz-discussion sessions, and tno two-hour laboratory periods each week. The other course, Chemistry la H.S., is offered for three credits for one semester. In it the students attend two lectures, one quiz-discussion section and one two-hour laboratory period each meek. The two courses use the same text- book, cover the same subject matter in lecture, and have identical examinations given a t the same time. -

planning to specialize in chemistry or engineering. They include students who are preparing for work in ?;:;;aa* ;z;-k various professional fields such as agriculture, home ;;:; -*.-. ,-.w

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... ........ ", ',.i" .urr.4 F L (Y-w.) rigure a. comparison of chsmistry l a students who ~sce i -d . %.XS .urn,,.=* F i n d Grade of A with Chemistry 1. H.S. Students Who Recdvsd a -1- 0*.. %,U, b : 50 % ?,= = =? F i n d Grade of A *0. --1C.%u... -.. ,-*ai,*., h:b* . Y L ~ . = ~ D Black bar: Chemistry l o studena *U IDl nirni., .u = x- 5. ,.=w White bar: Chenlistry l o H.S. students

o 10 40 00 80 The laboratory experiments in Chemistry la H S . are, in Figure 1. Comparison of Totd Chemistry 1. Cl-withTotd Chemla-

try la H.S. C1.s

Blsck bar: Chemistry l o students White bar: Chemistry lo H.S. student

(NI- and N~.a.a. refer, respeotively, to the number of students who a w e enrolled in Chemistry lo and Chemistry l o H.S. and for whom data on the variable in question were available. Because of the lack of complete data. the "umber of students for whom data for each variable were available ia indicated on esoh graph.)

One of the two courses considered, designated here as Chemistry la, is for students who have had no pre- vious chemistry. I t is a fivecredit course for one semester in which each student attends two one-hour

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general, chosen to avoid duplication of the experiments done in good high-school courses but to be of the same level of difficulty as those done in Chemistry la. Stu- dents from the t,mo courses are not distinguished in the second semester, but enter one course, Chemistry Ib.

In the organization of the two courses it is sought to allow the student who has had high-school chemistry to prepare himself for the second semester of college chemistry with less investment of time than the student with no chemical background. This saving of time comes primarily in less drill on chemical notation, no- menclature, and the more elementary concepts of chemistry. Other aims of the organizational frame-

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Blaok bar: Chemirtry lo students White bar: Chemistry la H.S. students

work are to avoid giving a student full college credit for repeating a subject offered for entrance to the univer- sity, to avoid the inferiority feeling with respect to chemistry often felt by students who have had no chemistry when they are placed in a class with those who have had high-school chemistry, and in an equi- table way to bring students with and without high- school chemistry to the same point of training a t the end of the first semester of college chemistry.

Although the Chemistry la H.S. students have fewer class hours than the Chemistry la students, it has been found that they invariably average five to ten points higher on each of the three-hour exams which are given

during the semester, and on the final exam. The per- centage of final grades of A is higher and of F's is l o ~ ~ e r in Chemistry la H.S. than in Chemistry la, but the average of the two groups together is about the same as in earlier years, when they were both taught in a single 5-credit course.

In view of the markedly higher averages of the Chem- istry la H.S. group, even on the final exam which is given after both groups have completed a semester of college chemistry, me were led to the tentative conclusion that this group must be a select group in some respect in addition to the fact that they have had high-school chemistry. In order to test this hypothesis we have compared the performance of students in both groups, in the fall semester of 1949, with a variety of other data available on the individuals. The broad conclusions are that the students who elect high-school chemistry average higher in general scholastic ahihty than those who do not, that a student of a given scholastic ability who has had high-school chemistly will make the same grade in Chemistry la H.S. as a student of the same

Blaok bar: Those aho received an A White bar: Those who received an F

Black bar: Those who received an h White bar: Those who received an F

ability who has not had high-school chemistry will achieve in Chemistry la, that sex and size of town from which a student comes do not influence his achievement in general chemistry.

The two groups, those who took Chemistry la and who took Chemistry la H.S., were compared according to the following characteristics: (1) percentage who received each of the final semester grades of A, B, C, D, E, F, and Incomplete; (2) percentage of males and of females; (3) percentage classified as Wisconsin res- idents; (4) percentages from towns of a t least 100,000 population, of a t least 10,000 hut less than 100,000, of at least 5000 but less than 10,000, of a t least 2500 hut less than 5000, of a t least 500 but less than 2500, and of

462 JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL EDUCATION

less than 500 population; (5) the mean percentile on the total score of the American Council on Education Psychological Examination (ACE)',Z (1947 edition); (6) the mean percentile on the linguistic score (L) of the American Council on Education Psychological Exami- nation (1947 edition); (7) the mean percentile on the quantitative score (Q) of the American Council on Education Psychological Examination (1947 edition); (8) the mean rank in high-school class; (9) the mean percentile on the Level of Comp~ehension score on the Cooperative English Test (Form Q); (10) the mean percentile on the Science section of the Cooperative General Culture Test;= (11) the mean percentile on the mathematics section of the Cooperative General Cul- ture T e ~ t . ~ The mean (or percentage) of each class was obtained for each of the above characteristics. In addition, mean (or percentage) comparisons were made for each grade category (A, B, C, D, E, F, or Incom- plete) for each class.

The table and graphs compare those students who took Chemistry la with those students who took Chemistry la H.S. on the above characteristics. Al- though the data are in some cases too limited to be ab- solutely conclusive, the tables and graphs strongly sng- gest the following conclusions:

Chemistry lo Chemistry lo H. 8.

Figure 8. Sssttrr Diamam Shoe". ACE Total Percentils Ssorm for Each Student Who Receind Specified Find Grades (The line passes

th.0Wh the msana for each moup.)

The ACE is used at Wisconsin as one indication of a student's scholastic ability. The quantitative (Q) and linguistic ( L ) scores are combined to get the ACE Total score. The L soore, how- ever, is weighted more heavily.

Scores from the American Council on Education Psyohologi- cal Examination, the Cooperative General Culture, and the Cooperative English Test were obtained from the required en- trance examinations for all new freshmen at the University of Wisoonsin.

a This ia one measure ofa student's past achievement in science. ' T h i ~ is one measure of a student's past achievement in mathe

matics.

(1) The students who have taken high-school chem- istry and those who have not do not differ significantly in no~intellectnal characteristics, such as sex, size of home community, and state residence (Figure 1).

(2) The two groups do differ in intellectual character- istics, i.e., rank in high-school class, the mean per- centiles of the ACE total score, ACE Q score, ACE L score, reading comprehension score, score on science achievement, and score on mathematics achievement. The students who have had chemistry in high school are as a group superior in all to the students who have not had high-school chemistry (Figure 1).

(3) There does not appear to be any significant difference between the A students of the two groups except possibly on one score: the science achievement score (Figure 2). The mean score on the science achievement test for those who received A in Chemistry la H.S. is higher than the mean score for those who re- ceived A in Chemistry la. This difference between the two groups on the science achievement score should be expected since this test was given when both groups entered the University. At the time the Chemistry la group had not had any formal training in chemistry.

(4) Those students who received F in Chemistry la and those who received F in Chemistry la H.S. are be- low the average of the group on all the intellectual characteristics (Figure 3).

(5) For both the Chemistry la and Chemistry la H.S. classes, there is a strong indication that the intellectual variables are highly correlated with the grades received (Figures 4 and 5).

(6) In Figure 2, one will note that 83 per cent of those who received A in Chemistry la H. S. were males. If the grades were distributed evenly between the two sexes, one would expect that approximately 60 per cent of those who received A ~vould be males and 40 per cent females since that is the sex distribution in the totd Chemistry la H.S. class. In Chemistry la, 67 per cent of those who received A Irere males. If the grades were distributed evenly between the two sexes, o?e ~ o u l d expect that approximately 68 per cent of those nho received A would be males and 32 per cent females since that is the sex distribution in the total Chemistry la class.

The question is then raised vhy more males, taking into account the sex distribution in each class, received A in Chemistry la H.S. than in Chemistry la. Our answer, which is not apparent in the table or graphs, is that the males in Chemistry la H.S. showed a better performance on some of the intellectual characteristics, which have been shown to be correlated with grades in - these chemistry courses, than did the females in Chem- istry la H.S. This difference in performance between males and females was not apparent for the Chemistry l a class. For example, a greater percentage of top scores on the science achievement test, more than mould he expected by the sex distribution of the class, was obtained by males than females .in Chemistry la H.S. However, this difference was, not nearly as noticeable for the Chemistry la class. A

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464 JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL EDUCATION

(7) In the scatter diagram (Figure 6) one can com- pare the mean l i e s of the .4CE total percentile score for both classes. There is a direct positive relation- ship between grades received and ACE total percentile score. Since similar results are obtained when the ot,her intellectual variables are plotted with grades re- ceived, only one scatter diagram is presented. Despite the direct relationship, extreme caution must be used

when predicting for an individual student. For ex- ample, note the students in both classes who received an A grade but had rather low ACE total percentile scores. ACKNOWLEDGMENT

We should like to express our appreciation to Dr. L. E. Drake, Director of the Student Counseling Center of the University, and to the University Computing Service for assistance in this work.