New Perspectives in Science Education

University dropout is caused by a variety of reasons: financial problems of students, sickness, mismatch between the study program and the students’ interests of study etc. However, the most common reasons for students' university dropouts in science studies are their obvious deficiencies in the respective conceptual knowledge of science [1]. Therefore, introductory courses are offered which prepare prospective students for their first term by teaching basic science concepts.

At the University of Göttingen, we design such an introductory course for chemistry major and minor students. In a preliminary study, we determined students’ prior knowledge and misconceptions in chemistry in order to adapt the contents and methods of the course to the needs of our students. The consideration of these needs resulted in the development of blended learning units on basic chemistry topics like atomic structure, chemical bonding, chemical reactions and stoichiometry as well as basics in organic chemistry.

In our contribution, we will describe and discuss the design of these blended learning units. Within this discussion, we will focus on the role of contextualization of the chemical contents, the role of multimedia learning in chemistry and the role of determining and treating misconceptions in chemistry [2,3,4].

[1] Hoyt, J.E.; Winn, B.A. (2004): Understanding Retention and College Student Bodies: Differences Between Drop-Outs, Stop-Outs, Opt-Outs, and Transfer-Outs. NASPA Journal 3/41.

[2] Bennett, J., Hogarth, S. & Lubben, F. (2005). A systematic review of the effects of context-based and Science-Technology-Society (STS) approaches in the teaching of secondary science. York.

[3] Mayer, R. E. (2009): Multimedia Learning. Cambridge.

[4] Taber, K. (2002): Chemical Misconceptions: Prevention. London.