General Chemistry: Large Classes, Mixed Public, Three Languages (A Personal Experience)

Abstract

At most universities, teaching general chemistry to fresh(wo)men is a challenge as the audience is usually composed of students of different backgrounds and interests. On one hand, the lecture is meant to bring all students to a basic level of chemistry required for future studies, on the other hand, certain concepts are discussed in much more depth than what students know from school. While it is already a balancing act to teach the content to students with little chemistry knowledge without boring those who took intensive classes at school, the University of Fribourg adds a challenge by teaching officially bilingual classes.

Keywords

• diversity in students
• experiments in lectures
• general chemistry teaching
• large classes
• plurilinguistic teaching