Chemistry instructors seldom deliberately target the affective domain of students during curriculum development or classroom activities. Indeed, the language often found in course syllabi pertaining to student learning outcomes (SLO) is focused squarely on addressing students’ cognitive domain alone. This occurs because the authors of SLO documents, the chemistry instructors, often hold true that the cognitive and mathematical abilities of students are all that relate to mastering chemistry, despite learning theory stating the importance of other variables, including students’ self-concept. East Los Angeles College (ELAC) is an urban 2-year college at which 85-95% of freshman students place below transfer level in English and mathematics and 20% of students are English-language learners. Suspecting that many ELAC students enrolling in introductory chemistry courses are likely to have low self-concept towards chemistry, and knowing that low self-concept can be linked to low achievement, we assessed students’ self-concept in introductory chemistry using the published Chemistry Self-Concept Inventory instrument. Results from PLS-SEM analysis of the data obtained are presented and discussed, along with discussion of the influence of the cognitive domain on students’ self-concept in introductory college chemistry. The change in students’ self-concept towards introductory chemistry during a course is also analyzed and discussed. The initial results presented here add to the growing discourse among chemistry educators about spreading awareness of students’ affective domain, and publicizing ways to monitor and positively influence students’ affective domain. This work has implications for chemistry educators seeking to identify at-risk students early in a course who would benefit from targeted interventions that promote positive self-concept and foster meaningful learning in chemistry.

Partial least squares structural equation modeling of chemistry self-concept in introductory college chemistry

255th National Meeting (2018)

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