New Perspectives in Science Education

Abstract

Studies focusing on university dropout rates revealed that a high number of German students abandon their chemistry studies early on [1]. In addition to numerous other reasons, the high demands of the subject in the first semester are often described as one of the main factors for dropping out. [2]

In order to counteract this phenomenon, an introductory chemistry course was offered for chemistry majors and teacher students for secondary schools in September 2014 at the University of Göttingen. This introductory course, which took place three weeks before the semester began, aimed at preparing the students for their first term through revision and practice of high school chemistry skills. Furthermore, the introductory course was based on the method of blended learning [3]. Therefore, students had days of attendance at the university which were followed by days of independent study at home with e-learning modules.

As part of the introductory course, an exploratory study on the students’ learning strategies was conducted since hardly any previous studies focus on learning strategies in a blended learning environment. In this context, learning strategies are defined as students’ own behavioral patterns to control their learning process [4]. The study’s aim is a description of the respective learning strategies used by students during the introductory course. Here, questionnaires (n = 78) as well as eight additional qualitative interviews were used for data collection. This data was subsequently analyzed by means of qualitative content analysis [5].

This contribution describes the results of this qualitative study and discusses their relevance for the design of future learning scenarios within the framework of blended learning introductory courses.

References

[1] U. Heublein, J. Richter, R. Schmelzer and D. Sommer, Die Entwicklung der Studienabbruchquoten an den deutschen Hochschulen: statistische Berechnungen auf der Basis des Absolventenjahrgangs 2012, Hannover: Dt. Zentrum für Hochsch.- und Wiss.- Forschung, 2014. [2] J.E.Hoyt and B. Winn, Understanding Retention and College Student Bodies: Differences Between Drop-Outs, Stop-Outs, Opt-Outs, and Transfer-Outs, NASPA Journal 3/41, 2004. [3] H. Mandl and B. Kopp, "Blended Learning: Forschungsfragen und Perspektiven," Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Department Psychologie, Institut für Pädagogische Psychologie, München, 2006.[4] H. Mandl and H. F. Friedrich, Handbuch Lernstrategien, Göttingen: Hogrefe, 2006. [5] P. Mayring, "Qualitative Inhaltsanalyse," in Qualitative Forschung, rowohlts enzyklopädi, 2009, pp. 468-474.