A college chemistry course, part of a two-semester sequence in general chemistry, that has a specified prerequisite of a year of high school chemistry and intermediate algebra. How to establish an appropriate pace for coverage of the material/ So many different things go into the equation that determines this including but not limited to: 1) we meet 4 days per week. 2) we have a specified list of topics we are expected to cover and outcomes we are expected to achieve. 3) students always want more examples of how to do the problems. 4) students often don’t read the book or do any of the problems before they come to class. 5) a year of high school chemistry or a semester of high school level chemistry in college means a wide variation in terms of level of preparation. 6) passing the prerequisite course with a C- or better means the student possibly had no understanding on approximately 30% of the material.
End result – It is very hard to hit a good pace that allows the struggling students to work extra and catch up while still keeping the really good students engaged and interested. It is much easier in the second semester of the course because some filtering has occurred and the level of preparation has become more uniform. At this level, however, it becomes a difficult juggle. Too many examples and the good students start to disengage. To few examples and we start to go through the material faster and then we end up hitting more than one significant new concept in a 50 minute lecture and the second one gets lost in the shuffle by those who are struggling. How to incorporate stall tactics into a lecture without having them be obvious stall tactics so that good students will remain engaged and weaker students will not be hurt or hindered by the content of what is being talked about during the stall?
