Student-centered teaching practices and assessments to enhance retention: An introduction

Quality education in STEM fields is a major global concern in academia. Problems stem from both students' and instructors' inadequacies, including their mindsets of learning and teaching. The pipeline of students entering college without effective study skills causes high attrition rate in introductory science and math courses. Unwillingness of the instructors to adjust their ways of teaching to support students will only make the retention matter worse. This book presents a collection of teaching practices, teaching activitites, and assessment strategies that the instructors from different types of institutions have tried in their introductory chemistry classes with the aim to reduce DFW rate and improve student retention in the programs. The authors of each chapter have shared the same challenge of student attrition and they have evaluated the effect of implementing different approaches in promoting successful completion of the classes. Classroom management and parameters that contributed to success and limitations are discussed in each chapter. © 2019 American Chemical Society. All rights reserved.