COMPARISON OF PERCEPTIONS OF THE IMPORTANCE OF HIGH SCHOOL CHEMISTRY AMONG VARIOUS INSTRUCTORS AND STUDENTS IN THE UNITED STATES AND MALAYSI

This study focussed on the knowledge, skills, and personal attributes which various groups perceived as important outcomes of high school chemistry courses as preparation for the study of chemistry in college. Information was collected from high school students, high school teachers, college professors, and science educators in the United States and Malaysia.;High school chemistry teachers were shown to be persistent in their perception of the importance of the mastery of chemistry knowledge as important preparation for college chemistry. On the other hand, college chemistry professors and science educators perceived the acquisition of certain personal attributes as the most important preparation; they perceived the acquisition of specific knowledge of chemistry to be relatively unimportant.;Similarly, Malaysian high school chemistry students were seen to perceive the acquisition of certain personal attributes as their most important preparation for college study. High school chemistry students from the United States, however, perceived the attainment of certain skills in using chemistry knowledge as their greatest need.;In studying the areas of chemistry knowledge perceived to be important for the study of chemistry in college, all respondents rated knowledge of specific facts as the least important area in the general knowledge domain. Knowledge of "definitions" was regarded as the most important area of chemistry knowledge.;There was no significant difference in the importance of the three areas of skills (understandings, applications, and higher abilities) as perceived by Malaysian respondent groups. However, American respondents rated skills in understanding as the most important skills for high school chemistry students to possess.;With regard to personal attributes, all respondents except American science educators, perceived students with good study skills as the most important attribute. American science educators perceived students with interest in chemistry as the most important attribute.;College professors indicate that high school chemistry should aim at imparting strategies of learning rather than teaching the content of chemistry. Acquisition of knowledge was seen by college chemists to be relatively less important than learning how to learn. This implies that growth of students' own initiative should be given more attention as a major outcome of high school chemistry instruction.