Chemistry student enthusiasm: exploring student and teaching staff perspectives

Thesis

The first aim of a general chemistry degree course is to ‘instil in students an enthusiasm for chemistry’ (QAA Chemistry Benchmark Statement, 2019), and chemistry enthusiasm is a required student characteristic within the Oxford MChem admissions criteria.

Through qualitative interviews with students and teaching staff, this study explored what student enthusiasm means, why it is important in chemistry education, and how the Oxford MChem course affects student enthusiasm.

Findings suggested the four-phase model interest of development usefully explains definitions of chemistry enthusiasm, how it develops and why it is important in education. Subjective vitality explained how students’ general enthusiasm affected their experience of chemistry enthusiasm, and self-determination theory explained why it developed.

A rich theme across interview responses was workload, or more specifically how workload and chemistry student enthusiasm interacted. Respondents perceived that the Oxford chemistry degree had a distinctively heavy workload; chemistry enthusiasm reduced students’ experience of workload; high workload could make or break student enthusiasm; and excessive workload caused three things: superficial learning, perceived lack of control, and significant enthusiasm loss. This analysis agreed with previous studies which found that interest reduced perceptions of workload, and high workload caused superficial learning and reduced interest.

Authors: Nicolaou, Z

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-zgz1rwnee
• Type of award: MSc
• Level of award: Masters
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: workload; chemistry education; student enthusiasm; student interest; higher education; subjective vitality; self-determination theory
• Subjects: Chemistry