The impact of coupling assessments on conceptual understanding and connection-making in chemical equilibrium and acid–base chemistry

Abstract

<p>Science educators have developed a variety of assessment techniques to help students connect their scientific knowledge and bridge conceptual gaps. In chemistry, concept maps and creative exercises are the two notable assessments that have been implemented into multiple chemistry courses and indicated promising effects on students’ conceptual learning and connection-making between chemistry concepts. These two assessment techniques were usually implemented individually in research studies. Herein, we employed a quasi-experimental, mixed-methods approach to explore whether combining concept maps and creative exercises would reveal any synergistic effects for student learning of chemical equilibrium and acid–base chemistry in a college general chemistry course. In this study, student perceptions of the use of the two assessments were examined by open-ended surveys. Interestingly, students perceived creative exercises as an assessment technique while concept maps were viewed as a learning tool for studying or reviewing exams. Additionally, Students believed that concept maps assisted them in answering creative exercises, but not <italic>vice versa</italic>. The four study groups (control group, concept maps only, creative exercises only, and both concept maps and creative exercises) were compared through concept inventory pre and post-test questions. The results of an ANCOVA indicated that participation in the experimental groups did not significantly impact conceptual learning gains, as measured by the concept inventory post-test scores. However, focus group interviews indicated students from the experimental group that used both concept maps and creative exercises were able to provide more sophisticated scientific explanations for conceptual questions related to the topics of chemical equilibrium and acid–base chemistry. Implications of these research results, best practices for implementation of the two assessments, and future research are discussed.</p>

Impact of fill-in-the-nodes concept maps on low prior-knowledge students learning chemistry: a study on the learning achievements and attitude toward concept maps

“…However, in the latter study, the treatment and control groups were taught by two different instructors, which led the instructors to become independent variables. Consistent with the findings of Markow and Talbert, the research conducted on 111 students in General Chemistry by Ye et al (2020) also indicated learning with concept maps brought no significant difference when compared with the control group. The study of Ye also had different teaching assistants for the control group and the treatment group.…”

“…If only restricting to the quasi-experimental control group design, the results match the study of Su (2013) that reported using concept maps in teaching chemistry had some advantages over traditional teaching. However, the study results are inconsistent with those of Markow and Lonning, Talbert, Ye (Markow and Lonning, 1998;Talbert et al, 2020;Ye et al, 2020). These studies showed no significant difference between treatment and control groups.…”

“…Over the past 25 years, only a few studies on concept mapping in higher education chemistry courses have been conducted, and the findings concerning learning outcomes have been inconsistent (Markow and Lonning, 1998;Su, 2013;Aguiar and Correia, 2016;Turan-Oluk and Ekmekci, 2018;Talbert et al, 2020;Wang et al, 2020;Wong et al, 2020;Ye et al, 2020). The present study is significant because it aims to fill the existing evidence gap regarding the effects of concept maps on learning chemistry, particularly focusing on the fill-inthe-nodes task.…”

“…On the one hand, concept maps could show no effects on students' learning (Markow and Lonning, 1998;Talbert et al, 2020;Ye et al, 2020). Markow and co-workers (1998) conducted quasi-experiment research on 32 non-science majors enrolled in Principles of Inorganic and Organic Chemistry.…”

Bibliometric Analysis of Concept Maps in Chemistry Education

“…Chemistry educators can determine what concepts or connections to teaching students and what the common misconceptions and lacks of knowledge are through CMs (Burrows & Mooring, 2015). Several studies which use CMs as a tool for the assessment of learning in chemistry are also available (Anzovino & Bretz, 2016;Burrows & Mooring, 2015;Francisco et al, 2002;Kaya, 2008;Nakhleh & Krajcik, 1994;Pendley et al, 1994;Ye et al, 2020). Teachers can choose to use them as a preassessment and formative assessment instrument to reveal the knowledge structures of students related to concepts (Burrows & Mooring, 2015).…”