Resumen de Lecturer Perceptions of Student Difficulties in a First-Year Chemistry Course

David Symington, Valda Kirkwood

• This paper addresses the question of how the staff involved in the teaching of a first-year chemistry course define the problems experienced by the students in the course. All of the staff involved in the teaching of first-year chemistry in a relatively small Australasian university agreed to be interviewed for the study. The interviews revealed not only the way these people defined the sources of student difficulty but also the ways in which they believed these could be addressed. The paper reports an analysis of these data which reveals the diversity of views held. The implications of the data analysis are explored.