Embedding Graduate Attributes at the Inception of a Chemistry Major in a Bachelor of Science

• Published in: Journal of chemical education 2014-12, Vol.91 (12), p.2078-2083
• Main Authors: Windsor, Sarah A.M, Rutter, Kerry, McKay, David B, Meyers, Noel
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Academic Achievement; Academic degrees; Australia; Career Choice; Chemistry; Chemists; College students; Communication Skills; Curricula; Curriculum; Curriculum development; Education Work Relationship; Educational Change; Educational Strategies; Ethics; Expertise; Feedback; Foreign Countries; Graduates; Guidelines; Higher education; Higher education institutions; Inorganic Chemistry; Job Skills; Organic chemistry; Perceptions; Physical chemistry; Problem Solving; Reforming; Science education; Science Instruction; Scientists; Student Attitudes; Student Evaluation; Students; Surveys; Sustainability; Task Analysis; Undergraduate Students
• ISSN: 0021-9584; 1938-1328
• DOI: 10.1021/ed5001526

Future employers increasingly require work-ready graduates. Higher education institutions throughout the world have responded through reforming the curriculum of major strands of study to incorporate graduate attributes. In this case study, we explicitly taught graduate attributes, obliged students to practice their newfound capabilities, gave feedback on their mastery of their new talents, and then assessed their expertise. We worked with students to progressively acquire graduate attributes that they need to become professional chemists. We implemented this strategy in a coherent suite of eight courses at a regional university in Australia. Our purpose was to design a tranche of eight courses to sequentially guide students’ mastery of graduate attributes in ways that would contribute to producing “bench-ready” chemists. Students’ perceptions of their acquisition of graduate attributes were ascertained through surveys and compared with student performance on assessment tasks. The knowledgeable and problem-solving graduate attributes were successfully developed in the first-year course, SCI105 Chemistry, and the third-year course, Physical Chemistry, respectively. The communication, engaged, ethical, and sustainability-focused graduate attributes were simultaneously developed in the second-year course, Inorganic Chemistry. We present here our model and underlying framework in such a way that others could implement this strategy in another context.