Impacts of active learning and context-embedded instruction on student affect and conceptual learning gains in a large introductory chemistry course

A recent examination of the first-year chemistry curriculum at UBC’s Okanagan campus revealed that astonishingly few Bachelor of Science students (approximately 5%) enrolled in the course actually continue to pursue a major in chemistry. This revelation stimulated a transformation of the curriculum in terms of the content taught and its instructive delivery. This educational pivot shifts toward a more affective-driven approach, focussing on student attitudes and beliefs about the content they are learning. The syllabus is scaffolded using the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals as a thematic framework to demonstrate chemistry’s relevance to global environmental issues and other real-world meaningful contexts. This framework is coupled with various active learning strategies, including flipped classrooms with interactive instructional videos, guided inquiry activities, two-staged exams, and context studies. This dissertation describes the findings of various research studies exploring the impacts of the design, development, and delivery of the revised first-year chemistry curriculum. The studies described utilized mixed methods approaches, encapsulating quantitative and qualitative techniques such as pre-/post-intervention test scores, extensive survey data including Likert scale-based questions and semantic differential scales, and smaller, more detailed semi-structured interview data. Much of the research performed in this dissertation is grounded in a constructivist theoretical framework, where participants focus on making sense of their experiences. Overall, I find that this long-term project has driven academic success in terms of lower failure rates, an increase in academic performance in lower-achieving students, and significant transformations in student affect. Students are completing the course with a greater appreciation for chemistry concepts and their pertinence in real-world, applicable contexts, and with changed attitudes, values, and beliefs about iv chemistry and the role it has played and will continue to play in our society. The overarching goal of this undertaking was to better inform our students regarding the relevancy of chemistry outside of the classroom in an entertaining and engaging manner, while using techniques pedagogically grounded in theories and methodologies lent from similar fields of academia, to practice affective learning outcomes. These specific affective learning goals are something I wish to further study and develop and employ elsewhere in the chemistry program and beyond.Science, Irving K. Barber Faculty of (Okanagan)Chemistry, Department of (Okanagan)Graduat