Chemical literacy levels of engineering students in Northeastern Thailand

Abstract

The objective of this study was to investigate the chemical literacy levels of undergraduate engineering students in Faculties of Engineering in Northeastern Thailand. The subjects were 391 undergraduate engineering students who were enrolled in a basic chemistry course in the 2nd semester of the 2012 academic year in the Faculty of Engineering at the North-Eastern University and at the Rajamangala University of Technology Isan in KhonKaen province. The instruments were a chemical literacy test (CLT) and semi-structured interviews. The CLT had 3 assessment formats: 1) multiple-choice CLT, 2) written CLT, and 3) test of chemistry related attitudes. The holistic results of the CLT responses of the engineering students showed that the mean of percentage scores was 43.58 and about three-fifths (61.90%) of the engineering students' level of chemical literacy was categorized at the “low level”. In addition, the results of semi-structured interview responses of the engineering students (n = 40) showed that more than half (57.5%) of the engineering students’ chemical literacy level was also categorized at the “low level”. The overall chemical literacy of the engineering students was categorized at the “low level”. Hence, it is necessary for educational institutions to develop learning activities for engineering students to achieve higher chemical literacy and to avoid any impact caused by chemical usage applied with a lack of knowledge and understanding and social responsibility.