An important aspect of successfully demonstrating student understanding is the retention of topics across time. Without retention of topics, the ability of students to employ relevant knowledge within future courses and later employment is in doubt. We explore the retention of students’ knowledge on selected topics within first and second semester general chemistry. Six items on in-term tests were repeated verbatim on the final exam as a measure of the student retention of these topics. Cluster analysis was used to describe patterns within the results creating four unique profiles of retention. Approximately 40% of students exhibit a high level of retention and these students outperform their peers throughout the semester. These students also exhibit greater improvement from the first test to the final exam than their peers. The findings were consistent in both the first-semester and second-semester courses indicating consistency across courses. Preliminary findings show that the use of active learning in the research setting may promote greater student retention of chemistry topics.

Analyzing the retention of knowledge among general chemistry students

2019 Spring National Meeting

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