STUDENT DROPOUT IN THE GENERAL CHEMISTRY SUBJECT I: CASE OF PUBLIC UNIVERSITY IN VENEZUELA

Abstract

Abstract

The objective of the research is to describe the causes that originate the desertion of students who are studying the first semester of the engineering career, in the subject General Chemistry I, period II-2015 of a public university in Venezuela. The applied methodology was of a non-experimental design, of a qualitative approach, of an exploratory and descriptive type. Field research was used as a method, and as techniques the interview, observation and open questionnaire, applied to a sample of 18 students who gave their testimonies and lived experiences and three teachers who teach the subject of Chemistry. The general results showed that there is a marked insufficiency of educational strategies to counteract student desertion, added to the economic dimension that is the one that most impacts students so that they become dropouts, making it necessary to constantly seek the true reasons that cause dropout, in order to reduce the dropout rate in the subject of General Chemistry I. The testimonies of the students show that student dropout is one of the problems faced by universities. To date, in the case study university, an investigation has not been carried out to study the causes of this phenomenon focused on the qualitative; consequently, it is necessary to know how students think, what affects them and why they drop out in their studies, with an emphasis that allows the institution to make decisions.