How to improve students’ participation in chemistry class: The case of 2nd Year Chemistry students taking the course Practical Organic Chemistry

  Berhe Zewde Aregawi,  Mengiteab G/Hiwot Meressa

The purpose of this study is to improve students’ participation in chemistry laboratory work by identifying and decreasing the existing factors that affect students’ participation during laboratory work , in the case second year chemistry students at Adigrat University. It is well known that doing laboratory work leads to improved process skills, and the acquired skills may promote a more desirable attitude towards the subject. However, laboratory works have generally been haltered in recent educational environments for a variety of reasons. In order to address this gap, this study was conducted to assess the factors that affect students’ participation in chemistry laboratory works on student participation and achievement among 96 students from three different sections. Study data were gathered with pre and post laboratory Test, laboratory equipment test, unstructured observations, questionnaires, and interview and group discussion. The Acquired data were analyzed by using Statistical Package for Social Sciences 16.0 (SPSS 16.0) program and primarily descriptive statistics such as frequency distribution and percentages. It was concluded that Based on the findings presented above the following conclusions were made: – All of the respondents are academically poor and the department in which they are currently enrolled is totally not their choice. – Lack of interest to the department and preparation before actual class are the major factors causing the students to be passive in the class room. – Unpleasant class room environments was also found to be the major abstracts to students class participation – Teachers heavy reliance on teacher centered teaching method (lecture) and absence of special support for low achiever students has greatly influenced students class participation

Keywords- Practical organic chemistry, questionnaire, interview, unstructured observation

Unique Identification Number - IJEDR1704223
Page Number(s) - 1397-1401
Pubished in - Volume 5 | Issue 4 | December 2017
DOI (Digital Object Identifier) -   
Publisher - IJEDR (ISSN - 2321-9939)

  Berhe Zewde Aregawi,  Mengiteab G/Hiwot Meressa,   "How to improve students’ participation in chemistry class: The case of 2nd Year Chemistry students taking the course Practical Organic Chemistry", International Journal of Engineering Development and Research (IJEDR), ISSN:2321-9939, Volume.5, Issue 4, pp.1397-1401, December 2017, Available at :http://www.ijedr.org/papers/IJEDR1704223.pdf