It is generally accepted that many students have learning difficulties with topics such as stequiometry, solutions, chemical equilibrium, buffer solutions and gaseous states. Some of the learning difficulties in chemistry can be accounted for in terms of the learner’s mental capacity to process information and the nature of chemistry as science. An investigation carried out involving general chemistry students in the University of La Salle, led to the conclusion that although many of the participants had high mental capacity values their academic performance was low. Academic performance for those students with low mental capacity values was also low. A possible explanation for these results may stem from the fact that many questions included in the assessment process were found to be of high demand and were related to chemistry topics considered by the students as the most difficult in general Chemistry.
Chemistry education; academic performance; assessment process