Determinants of General Chemistry Success of Engineering Students in PLTL and Traditional Classroom: State Anxiety and Test Anxiety

Abstract

The purpose is to find out whether state and test anxiety can predict general chemistry grade in peer-led team learning group (PLTL) and non-PLTL groups and to explore their predictability of the grade after controlling the influence of trait anxiety. The sample consisted of a total 128 freshman engineering students attending general chemistry in a private university. STAI and RTT instruments and exams were used to generate data which were analyzed by using standard and hierarchical multiple regression. The findings revealed that in both groups the combination of predictors is significantly related to general chemistry grade, having the strongest unique contribution of test anxiety; however, it was only statistically significant for PLTL group. After controlling the effect of trait anxiety, test anxiety still makes a unique significant contribution for PLTL group. Accordingly, test anxiety can be used to predict the general chemistry grade of PLTL students.