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Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey (CLASS) - Chemistry

Purpose

The CLASS-Chem measures novice-to-expert-like perceptions about chemistry. The CLASS-Chem measures a range of attitudes that vary between experts and novices, including enjoyment of the discipline, making connections to the real world, the conceptual connections underlying knowledge, and problem-solving strategies.

Population

The CLASS-Chem is commonly administered in undergraduate chemistry courses from introductory to upper division.

Typical Performance

Adams et al. (2008) report that student attitudes typically decrease in introductory chemistry courses with traditional instruction. As the LASSO database grows, we will investigate and share the typical results for LASSO users.

Example question

Question
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Validity

  • Adams, Wieman, Perkins, and Barbera (2008) developed the wording for each question using student interviews to ensure that each question has a single meaningful interpretation to students. Heredia and Lewis (2012) argue that the CLASS-Chem does not concurrently measure all 9 of the constructs that it reports on.

  • Adams, W. K., Wieman, C. E., Perkins, K. K., & Barbera, J. (2008). Modifying and validating the Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey for use in chemistry. Journal of Chemical Education, 85(10), 1435.

  • Heredia, K., & Lewis, J. E. (2012). A psychometric evaluation of the Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey for use in chemistry. Journal of Chemical Education, 89(4), 436-441.

Research

Examples of studies using the CLASS-Chem or related to its use are listed below.

  • Adams, W. K., Wieman, C. E., Perkins, K. K., & Barbera, J. (2008). Modifying and validating the Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey for use in chemistry. Journal of Chemical Education, 85(10), 1435.

  • Adams, W. K., Perkins, K. K., Podolefsky, N. S., Dubson, M., Finkelstein, N. D., & Wieman, C. E. (2006). New instrument for measuring student beliefs about physics and learning physics: The Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey. Physical review special topics-physics education research, 2(1), 010101.

  • Heredia, K., & Lewis, J. E. (2012). A psychometric evaluation of the colorado learning attitudes about science survey for use in chemistry. Journal of Chemical Education, 89(4), 436-441.

Example LASSO Report

Please follow this link to our example report for attitudes surveys.

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