General chemistry students ’ beliefs about chemistry and learning chemistry: An international comparison

Researchers have found a number of student attitudes and beliefs that both influence and are influenced by learning experiences.(see 1) In addition, attitudes and beliefs about learning have been found to be important predictors of students’ performance in post-secondary science coursework.(see 1) Moreover, improved attitudes have been shown to be correlated with improved learning outcomes.(2) The Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey (CLASS) was built upon existing attitudes/beliefs surveys (MPEX, VASS, EBAPS) to focus on students ’ beliefs about physics, learning physics and problem solving in physics instead of expectations for learning or perceptions of learning the discipline. The CLASS has been extensively validated with a wide variety of student populations, both science and non-science majors. In addition, most of the statements on the CLASS have consistent expert responses so that a comparison can be made between novice and expert beliefs. Expert-like beliefs/attitudes, as measured by the CLASS, are clearly correlated with future program of study. The chemistry version of the CLASS, the CLASS-Chem, is largely similar to the original with some additional statements, such as those on the atomic-molecular perspective of chemistry.(3) Both universities are large, 4-year or higher, and public with hig