2020 Transformative Learning Conference

Engaging with Transformative Learning Research

For a variety of reasons, students may not be successful in a given course. Faculty members make assumptions on why students are unsuccessful. A review of existing literature on student success in chemistry classes shows that faculty across the nation are proposing methods to address the high rate of students earning these grades. Still, there are very few studies asking students why they believe they received a DFW. This project involves a student survey from the Spring of 2015 to the Fall of 2018. The survey lists possible reasons why students receive these grades, i.e., failure to retain information, overloaded schedule, and family obligations, etc. To our knowledge, this is the first study of DFW rates in undergraduate chemistry classrooms that solicits student input. While some of the highly reported reasons align with faculty perceptions, with the student having a failure to grasp concepts occurring about 21% of the time, others are going against common beliefs, including increasing financial or familial obligations only reported about 3%. These results have led the Department of Chemistry to incorporate study habit skills development in lower-level classes. It has also manifested into assignment mapping across individual classes or commonly co-enrolled classes to try equally distribute the workload throughout the semester. Chemistry faculty now realize to achieve deeper learning and potential student transformation, students have additional needs requiring faculty focus. For better student success, we as faculty will also have to transform our thinking about student’s needs.