Correlations among various factors influencing learning of chemistry

Modern education focuses the didactic discourse on learning (namely, on the development of an” instructive paradigm”), on the more intensely manifested need of orienting didactics towards competence, the pupil being viewed as the subject of his/her own accomplishment. The present study analyzes the correlations occurring among the various factors known as influencing the learning and the results of learning Chemistry, from two different perspectives: the psychopaedagogical realities of early adolescence and the inherent difficulties characteristic to a most special scientific discipline (Chemistry). The observation made is that several factors - such as the specific contents of the discipline, the age of the pupils, their family background, participation to extra-curricular activities - may positively influence the didactic process, while a precarious family condition and avoidance of extra-curricular involvement may negatively affect learnin