Nowadays and everywhere, chemical education faces many problems not only at middle schools, but also at higher levels. Two main reasons may be the lack of students' interest on the chemistry subject and the perceived difficulties with chemistry courses. In addition,  sociocultural beliefs shared among people, including teachers and students, describe the subject of chemistry as hard; in this way, chemistry is not for all. These complex circumstances become serious impediments to pass the curriculum, lengthen the spent time to reach a college degree, and result in a high number of dropouts. Far from elite college model of the middle of Twentieth Century, the current Argentinian university is massive, with a large number of students with heterogeneous profiles. This situation is especially evident at public and free universities like Buenos Aires University. Consequently, inclusive and high quality education is difficult to achieve. This presentation describes three lines action to renew chemistry teaching at the university level: a) Implementation of different palliative devices for struggling students (tutoring programs, summer courses). b) Pedagogical training of faculty in a special Teacher Program, which aims to revisit, analyze and transform university practices. And, c) Giving significance to chemistry education research and its contribution to teaching and learning.

Teaching chemistry at university: Challenges for Latin America

248th National Meeting (2014)

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