What can we do about ‘Parker’? A case study of a good student who didn't ‘get’ organic chemistry (original) (raw)
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International Journal of Innovation in Science and Mathematics Education, 2013
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Aquademia
Chemical analysis is one of the important areas in learning chemistry as it inculcates in students the spirit of deductive reasoning enabling them to apply theoretical knowledge acquired in practical problems. Organic qualitative analysis (OQA) offers students the opportunity for identification of unknown organic chemicals in substances including toxic substances. Students’ alternative conceptions in OQA have been reported in the literature with the nature of the alternative conceptions yet to be investigated. Thus, this study investigated the nature of students’ alternative conceptions in OQA using a four-tier diagnostic test instrument. With the use of a cross-sectional survey design, 345 senior high chemistry students were randomly selected to participate in the study. The quantitative data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics. The findings of the study revealed the nature of students’ alternative conceptions in OQA as significant and genuine. The study, therefore...
This research investigated the teaching of concrete chemical concepts and procedures to beginning chemistry students. Data were collected for this study from students enrolled in a university-level course for nonscience majors (n=171). In the topic studied, chemical bonding, four different teaching strategies were investigated: remediation of basic concepts, bridging explanations, worked examples, and student-initiated discussions of concepts. Statistical analyses were used to compare each teaching strategy against the exam score on chemical bonding. Results of these comparisons indicated that none of the strategies were superior (p>.05); however, each had notable strengths and weaknesses. The students in the remedial group had the worst attendance, but scored the highest of all treatment groups on the bonding exam. Students in the worked examples treatment group had the best attendance, but derived the least benefit as indicated by the smallest increase between pre-and posttests and the weakest performance on the bonding exam.
Approaches to learning in a second year chemical engineering course.
Students’ approaches to learning in a second year chemical engineering course were investigated by means of a qualitative research project which utilized interview and journal data from a group of 11 students. Three approaches to learning were identified in this context: a conceptual approach (similar to the classic deep approach), in which the intention is to understand concepts; an algorithmic approach, in which the focus is on calculation methods; and an information-based approach, in which the intention is to gather and remember information. The latter two approaches can both be considered forms of the surface approach in that the fundamental intention does not involve understanding. This paper presents an analysis of students’ responses to a series of conceptual questions in which the use of particular approaches is identified. The research presented in this paper supports the notion that particular forms of deep and surface approaches might be found in specific contexts.
Chem. Educ. Res. Pract., 2011
has shown that many students are under-prepared to study Chemistry at third level, and hold many chemical misconceptions. Failure to address this problem early on through an Intervention Programme, like the one described here, will to continue to result in high failure rates and low levels of student retention. Chapter ~ Discussion This Chapter gives a detailed description of the main findings and discusses the significance and the implications of these findings. Chapter 6 ~ Conclusion This chapter will draw together the final conclusions from the project as well as answering the research questions that were outlined in Chapter 1.
Mapping student understanding in chemistry: The Perspectives of Chemists
Science Education, 2009
Preliminary pilot studies and a field study show how a generalizable conceptual framework calibrated with item response modeling can be used to describe the development of student conceptual understanding in chemistry. ChemQuery is an assessment system that uses a framework of the key ideas in the discipline, called the Perspectives of Chemists, and criterion-referenced analysis using item response models (item response theory (IRT)) to map student progress. It includes assessment questions, a scoring rubric, item exemplars, and a framework to describe the paths of student understanding that emerge.
Higher Education
Are the ways of engaging with the world that students develop through higher education particular to bodies of knowledge they study? In this article, we examine how students’ accounts of the discipline of chemistry in England and South Africa changed over the three years of their undergraduate degrees. Based on a longitudinal phenomenographic analysis of 105 interviews with 33 chemistry students over the course of their undergraduate degrees in four institutions, we constituted five qualitatively different ways of describing chemistry. These ranged from chemistry as something that happens when things are mixed in a laboratory to a more inclusive account that described chemistry as being able to explain molecular interactions in unfamiliar environments. Most students expressed more inclusive accounts of chemistry by the end of their degrees and the level of change appeared to be related to their educational experiences. In contrast to approaches that emphasise the generic student out...
2009 Annual Conference & Exposition Proceedings, 2020
and Technology. He received his Ph.D. degree in Information Science and Learning Technologies in 2007 from University of Missouri-Columbia. He also holds a BS and a Ph.D. from the University of Sibiu, Romania with a specialization in manufacturing technologies and respectively cutting-tools design. His research interests include Design-Based Research in technology-enabled learning contexts, technology-mediated problem solving, applications of dynamic modeling for learning of complex topics, and the impact of epistemic beliefs on learning with technology. Ioan Gelu Ionas, University of Missouri Columbia Dr. Ioan Gelu Ionas began teaching in a Romanian university more than 15 years ago with a bachelors degree in mechanical engineering. Since then he earned an M.B.A. degree from the University of Missouri-Columbia, and a Ph.D. in management from a Romanian university. While teaching in Romania he became interested in using technology in teaching and joined the doctoral program in Information Science and Learning Technologies at the University of Missouri-Columbia where he is currently a doctoral candidate. His research interests focus on the research and development of tools and methodologies to support causal reasoning and learning.
Lumat: International Journal of Math, Science and Technology Education, 2015
Using detailed learning pathways to map out students’ construction of knowledge in the topic of stoichiometric relations and chemical formulae; we try to find a new structure to teach enduring ‘stumbling stones’ on every single student’s way to a proper chemical understanding. This paper gives insights into the method of process-focused analysis and the associated design experiment. Furthermore, it presents an individual students’ strategy to calculate stoichiometric relations that could be used as initial help for slower learners.
There exists an unconscious bias among students that learning organic chemistry topics requires rote learning. In this paper, we tried to address this bias through an organic chemistry activity designed to promote argumentation. We present a study that investigated how students engage in an argumentation activity about conformational analysis of butane. Analysis of the student outcomes concentrated on (a) students’ understanding of conformations of alkanes (b) the nature of the students’ discourse; (c) the quality of students’ argumentation; and (d) students’ spatial ability. Various measures were used to trace (a) conceptual understanding through students’ answers in the writing frames, (b) the nature of the students’ discourse using two different codes, (c) the quality of student argumentation by counting the number of episodes with higher-level argumentation, and (d) students’ spatial ability by Spatial Ability Test. The results led us to conclude that if the proper conditions were set, students could argue about the conformations of alkanes. Moreover, our data showed that high performing groups had multiple rebuttals in their argumentation and low performing groups had problems in evaluating the credibility of evidence. Furthermore, we observed that spatial abilities play an important role in students’ engagement in higher-level argumentation. The results of the study help understanding of how to further enhance students’ conceptual understanding in organic chemistry, engagement in argumentation, and enhancement of spatial ability regarding various organic chemistry concepts.