UNIVERSITY RECOGNITION of PROFICIENCY in HIGHSCHOOL CHEMISTRY* JESSE E. DAY The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio Educutional institutions are co%sematively recognizing subj~ct-matter proficiency of their incoming .first-year students. The type of emmination used in measuring the degree of this proficiency i s discussed, the laboratory part being given in some detail. The results thus far w r r a n t the continuution of the recognition.
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OR the past quarter-century there has been a markedly growing high-school interest in chemistry.t Simultaneously, there have been varied university efforts, sometimes reluctant, to accord appromiate recomition to the chemistrv differential between .,
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* Presented before the Division of Chemical Education at the 88th meeting of the American Chemical Saciety, Cleveland, Ohio. September 11, 1934. t At this university the ratio of students entering chemistry without versus with high-school chemistry has gradually risen from 1:0.57 in 1910 to 1:1.3 in 1924 to 1:2.8 in 1933-a ratio change of 500%.
the students entering college chemistry with or without one year of high-school chemistry or its equivalent. Less than a decade ago the Division of Chemical Education commissioned a group of its membership to study the reputed overlapping of high-school and elementary college chemistry. It cs reasonable to assume that a permanent solution of the problem will never be reached, for both chemistry and education are adding tissue which is not necessarily adipose. The educational experiments reported in the appropriate journals substantiate that teachers of chemistry are reasonably cognizant of the varying degrees of achievement and aptitude in chemistry exhibited by students enrolling in first-year collegiate chemistry. Our own measurement &ort was begun in 1926 by the use of the placement examination as a major factor in determining whether or not the applicant was a t all qualified for admission to our more advanced first-year course. By 1929, i t was patent that from the results
of this same examination we could also select, with encouraging assurance, those students with chemistry as an entrance unit who were capable of beneficially completing three quarters of first-year chemistry in two quarters. Our first three attempts in this direction encountered administrative difficulties along with the age-old academic problem of presemation of academic integrity. Of the well-foundationed institutions of higher learning, The University of Chicago was the first to recognize extensively the subject-matter proficiency of its incoming students. Last year Henry C. Mills' described the then latest venture of the University of ButTalo in . i t is anticipating college credit. He concludes". evident that high school and college, as far as the brilliant pupil is concerned, are still far from wellarticulated." There are those who are not sympathetic with the granting of proficiency degree-credits, some on the grounds that the student thereby misses contact with some inspiring teachers; others seemingly have a sacred faith in the traditional four years, etc. Further objections are obvious and all of the rebuttals are equally potent, if not more so, in the judgment of the author. Despite these honest objections, the colleges and universities are not marking time, as is evidenced by the fact that, e. g., Ohio State University now honors proficiency to the extent of 30 quarter credit hours toward a baccalaureate degree, the colleges within the university, however, having reasonable autonomy as. to the quality of this proficiency. To the author's best knowledge, proficiency in firstyear chemistry has been determined usually* by aforma1 examination on textual material. The majority of those interested still regard chemistry as a laboratory science. Prior to 1930, most high schools found it financially possible to enlarge on the laboratory phase of the course. Since then high-school laboratory work has been curtailed. As our own more advanced course still emphasizes laboratory work, we felt that the actual manipulative feature should be a part of the proficiency examination. Our proficiency exaplination in 1933, therefore, was divided into a 3-hour written and a 3-hour laboratory examination. (This examination covered only the first quarter of the course--our experience indicating that there would be few if any candidates for the subsequent quarters.t) Recently$ the individual student grades for the two examinations were individually correlated with the final grade for the quarter. The textual grade gave a positive and the laboratory one a negative value. In order, then, to get a
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'MILLS, H. C., Sch. & Soc., 38, 577 (1933). * In 1916 at Louisiana State University the author had a slight contact with a laboratory examination in awarding state scholarships. This type of examination probably came into being there s few yean earlier. t In last year's group was found one student who had completed practically as much laboratory work as is required in our elementary qualitative analysis course. Surface scrutiny disclosed, however, that this student possessed practically no knowledge of the fundamental principles underlying systematic qualitative analysis. t Dr. R. W. Tyler of our Bureau of Educational Research made this study.
correct measure of the student's ability in the course, both of the grades are a necessary part of the picture when one of the objectives of the course is laboratory technic. Approximately 600 students took the placement examination last autumn. This examination was arranged in sections, these being (without respect to importance): (1) principles, laws, and factual material; (2) history; (3) valence; (4) formulas and chemical names; (5) common substances; (6) equations; (7) chemical vocabulary; (8) physical constants; (9) the solubility and color of certain common substances.** and (10) problems. The papers of the upper fifth of those who had taken the placement examination were scrutinized carefully, in order to ascertain which, if any, of these students had a knowledge of the fundamentals covered in our first-quarter course. With their consent, 77 students were permitted to take the proficiency examination. Thirty-two of these satisfactorily passed the examination and were given corresponding credit toward a baccalaureate degree. The written part of the examination was patterned after our regular first-quarter final examination. The laboratory part of the examination merits some detail. The first-year exercise sought for the occasion was one which would not require more than 2.2 hours of a 2.6hour period, the remainder of the time being necessary for the customary routine. The exercise must also d o r d the student exposition of the maximum number of typical elementary laboratory technics. The one selected was "Valence" (Magnesi~m).~ The more important technics on which the laboratory evaluation was based were: use of the burner, glass tubing manipulation, use of the balance, assembling of the apparatus, experimentation and record form, with particular attention to ability to draw conclusions. The number of students assigned to each of the four examiners never exceeded five a t any one period. The highest percentage grade made was 93 and the lowest 38, the weighted average being 72.8. ' In arriving a t a total grade the written examination was given a relative weighting of 4 and the laboratory part of 1. The correlation study made by Dr. Tyler shows that the weighting should have been 2 5 ; this value is being used in this year's proficiency examination. The two subsequent quarters of chemistry taken by the 32 students passing the proficiency examination proved conclusively that two of them either were not properly gaged by the examination, or else the course did not interest them further. The records support the 6rst explanation. The natural question i-are the high schools of today offering college chemistry (or, the reverse) or did these students have an unusual chemical background?
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**This part was found not to have areliable measurement value and is no Longer used by us. s M ~ P HENDERSON, ~ ~ ~ AND ~ ~ EVANS, ~ , "A laboratory manual arranged to accompany a course in general chemistry." 4th edition, Ginn and Co., New York City, 1934, 165 pp.
An interview and repeated contacts with each of them disclosed the following summarized typical case histories: had Kernkits, reviewed for state scholarship examination, had worked in a commercial chemical or ,pathological laboratory, was chairman of chemistry club, did outside reading or additional laboratory work in chemistry or physics, had an inspiring chemistry teacher, constructed a 6-inch reflecting telescope, etc. It is noteworthy that only one of these 32 students had reviewed specifically for the proficiency examination. A verbatim analysis of the proficiency examination papers of these students disclosed that they had not studied the fundamental concepts of chemistry as broadly as is done in the college course. An excellent illustration of this lack of breadth was the kinetic molecular theory. The students were familiar with its application to matter in the gaseous state only. Group extension instruction was given on this and a few other
topics. The students were instructed individually on any laboratory deficiencies, as exhibited in the laboratory examination. Although these corrective measures consumed several weeks, the work during the remainder of the two quarters could be and was conducted at a higher speed than was usual with the regular students. The recitation work in the course was comparatively informal. The wholesome effectof the decreased formality was reflected in the type of more advanced questions presented for discussion by the class. In conclusion, the author regards the experiment, with some modification, highly worthy of further study and continuation. The thanks of the author are tendered Professor W. C. Fernelius, and the graduate student instructors, S. E. Smith, D. R. Jackson, and R. F. Robey, who contributed extensively both to the formulation and execntion of the experiment.
