Relationships Between Achievement and Selective Variables in a Chemistry Course for Nonmajors

Abstract

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships between students' approaches to studying, prior knowledge, logical thinking ability, and gender and their performance in a nonmajors' college freshman chemistry course. Subjects for this study were 220 students (128 females and 92 males) enrolled in the second semester of a freshman chemistry course for nonmajors at a private university in New York State. Instruments used in this study included seven subscales of the Approaches to Studying Inventory and the Test of Logical Thinking (TOLT). The students' grades on an hour‐long exam early in the semester were used as measures of the students' prior knowledge, while the semester cumulative final examination scores were used as measures of achievement in chemistry. Students in this study had slightly higher scores on reproducing orientation than on meaning orientation, a pattern that confirms Entwistle and Ramsden's (1983) findings with a similar group of nonmajors. The results of a stepwise multiple regression showed that prior knowledge, TOLT scores, and meaning orientation accounted for 32% of the variance on the final examination scores.