RETAINING WEAKER STUDENTS: APilot PROJECT IN CHEMISTRY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF LIMERICK

In Ireland many universities, including the University of Limerick have a problem with weak students in undergraduate Science; programmes leading to high failure rates. Entry to these courses is possible with low grades in Mathematics and no relevant Science; subject from second level. Those who have not done a specific Science subject at second level are often left behind, as they lack the necessary; Science background. The Chemistry module that was examined typically has a failure rate of 30-40% at the first sitting. It is taken by; students from five different degree courses (A-E). Students who fail this module are usually those in course ‘A’ and course ‘B’, and they; are significantly weaker on entry than those in courses C, D and E. Therefore we designed a 9 week intervention programme for groups; A and B based on pre- and post-concept and attitude diagnostic tests. Results based on this intervention show, on average, a positive; trend in both conceptual understanding and confidence levels. Over 76% of students who took both pre- and post-diagnostic concept tests; improved in their performance. The performance of these two groups has also been evaluated in the final examination results, in two; modules compared to their peers who did not take the programme.