Students’ decisions to enter or persist in STEM courses is linked with their affective domain. The influence of factors impacting students’ affective domain in introductory college chemistry classes, such as attitude, is often overlooked by instructors, who instead focus on students’ mathematical abilities as sole predictors of academic achievement. The current academic barrier to enrollment in introductory college chemistry classes is typically a passing grade in a mathematics prerequisite class. However, mathematical ability is only a piece of the puzzle in predicting preparedness for college chemistry. Herein, students’ attitude toward the subject of chemistry was measured using the original Attitudes toward the Subject of Chemistry Inventory (ASCI). Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to chart and monitor the development of students’ attitude toward the subject of chemistry during an introductory college chemistry course. Results from PLS-SEM support a 3-factor (intellectual accessibility, emotional satisfaction, and interest and utility) structure, which could signal the distinct cognitive, affective, and behavioral components of attitude, according to its theoretical tripartite framework. Evidence of a low-involvement hierarchy of attitude effect is also presented herein. This study provides a pathway for instructors to identify at-risk students, exhibiting low affective characteristics, early in a course so that academic interventions are feasible. The results presented here have implications for the design and implementation of teaching strategies geared toward optimizing student achievement in introductory college chemistry.

中文翻译：

---

大学化学概论中化学态度的偏最小二乘结构方程建模

学生决定参加或坚持STEM课程与他们的情感领域息息相关。在入门的化学课程中，影响学生情感领域的因素（例如态度）的影响经常被教师忽略，他们将注意力放在学生的数学能力上，作为学习成绩的唯一预测指标。当前大学化学入门课程的入学障碍通常是数学先修课的及格分数。但是，数学能力只是预测大学化学准备的难题中的一小部分。在此，学生对化学学科的态度是使用原始的对化学学科目录的态度（ASCI）来衡量的。在大学化学入门课程中，使用偏最小二乘结构方程模型（PLS-SEM）来绘制和监视学生对化学学科态度的发展。PLS-SEM的结果支持3因子（智力可及性，情感满意度以及兴趣和效用）结构，根据其理论上的三方框架，可以表明态度的独特认知，情感和行为成分。本文还提供了一种低参与度的态度效应的证据。这项研究为教师提供了一种在课程早期识别情绪低沉，处境危险的学生的途径，从而可以进行学术干预。此处介绍的结果对旨在优化大学化学入门级学生学习成绩的教学策略的设计和实施具有重要意义。