Some factors affecting performance in general chemistry

The importance of a good education is for students to develop a love of learning and to try to get them to pursue higher goals. To educate the students and to drag them up to a certain minimal level of achievement is not an insignificant task³⁹ The process has to start at the high school level if not earlier.

Many high schools other than the 'schools for the gifted' suffer from lack of sufficiently qualified teachers and/or facilities and other equipment due to lack of finances. Moreover, not enough students are exposed to the sciences at the high school due to various levels of tracking. There are not sufficient staff development programs to encourage teachers to improve their competency. Many students consider the sciences and especially chemistry, boring and difficult to comprehend. Many students due to lack of facilities are not given the chance to work in the laboratories to learn the subject matter. There is no coordination between high school teachers and college professors. This country also does not have a national curriculum with the result that students enter college with widely differing abilities.

There are commercialized institutions who have admission standards which depend on the students ability to pay rather than student potential thereby lowering the standards of higher education in this country. This eventually poses a problem for the industries who have to deal with mediocre workers who have insufficient knowledge about their subject matter.

Due to insufficient preparation at the pre-college level, many of these students do not understand the material and need remediation programs.

It is necessary to have sufficient faculty members who are dedicated to improving the quality of education and who find satisfaction in doing so. Unfortunately some of the major causes of faculty resentment are undercompensation compared with their colleagues in industry and their students apparent lack of interest and unwillingness to learn the subject matter.

It is necessary for every department to maintain its standards and present a united front in spite of complaints from poor performers and hence should not admit any student into a course for which he/she is not qualified³⁹. For the students to come in with the right attitude and a desire to perform well, it is necessary to put pressure on the students to do well.

From the survey conducted at Virginia Tech, it is evident that student performance is much more strongly influenced by their prior experiences rather than their experiences at college.

It is also evident that there is a correlation between attendance and grades and that those students who have a desire to perform well and come to class regularly do get good grades.

Class size was not considered to be a major problem though it was indicated that they wanted to be forced to study hard.

Motivated students found help sessions to be useful.

In addition to the many changes which are needed to combat the above stated problems it is also necessary to ensure that students accept responsibility for learning and approach it with the right attitude and spirit and put in serious effort in what they do so that they may be productive members of this society.