In the past education research in organic chemistry has been chiefly concerned
with spatial ability (Pribyl & Bodner, 1985; Small & Morton, 1983) issues
surrounding visualization and mental rotation. Other than some investigations of
chemistry graduate students (Bowen, 1990; Bowen & Bodner, 1991), few studies
targeted student problem solving in organic chemistry until recently.
In Spring 2006 our group completed a tandem study to identify student
problem-solving strategies in product-prediction and retrosynthetic tasks; data
analysis is in progress. The methodology used a modified version of the
think-aloud protocol used by Barrows (2005) to identify undergraduate
problem-solving strategies. Thirty-one interviews were conducted by six trained
novice interviewers (71%), a near-peer interviewer (19%), and a researcher
(13%). Remotely-guided interviewing (RGI) was used for the majority of
interviews conducted by the novices.
References
Barrows, N.J. (2005). Students' problem-solving strategies, mental models, and
representational preferences in organic chemistry: Nucleophilic alkyl
substitution and elimination reactions. (Doctoral dissertation, University of
Northern Colorado, 2005). Dissertation Abstracts International, AAT 3183582.
Bowen, C.W. (1990). Representational systems used by graduate students while
problem solving in organic synthesis. Journal of Research in Science Teaching,
27, 351-370,
Bowen, C.W., & Bodner, G.M. (1991). Problem-solving processes used by students
in organic synthesis. International Journal of Science Education, 13, 143-158.
Pribyl, J.R., & Bodner, G.M. (1987). Spatial ability and its role in organic
chemistry: A study of four organic courses. Journal of Research in Science
Teaching, 24, 229-240.
Small, M.T., & Morton, M.E. (1983). Research in college science teaching:
Spatial visualization training improves performance in organic chemistry.
Journal of College Science Teaching, 13, 41-43.
