The design and use of a chemistry practice exam instrument that includes a measure for student mental effort is described in this paper. Use of such an instrument can beneficial to chemistry students and chemistry educators as well as chemical education researchers from both a content and cognitive science perspective. The method for calculating…

Even though several studies have reported positive attitudinal outcomes from context-based chemistry programs, methodological obstacles have prevented researchers from comparing satisfactorily the chemistry-learning outcomes between students who experience a context-based program with those who experience a content-driven program. In this…