Building reasonable scientific arguments is a fundamental skill students need to participate in scientific discussions. In organic chemistry, students’ argumentation and reasoning skills on reaction mechanisms are described as indicators...

In chemistry, building arguments and applying concept knowledge is closely linked to evaluating claims, supporting claims with evidence, and justifying the linkage of evidence to claim with reasoning. However, previous studies revealed that, when building arguments, students experience challenges either in differentiating between argument components, in applying concept knowledge, or in building multivariate arguments. Scaffolding may remediate these challenges by supporting students as they focus on the expected argument structure and/or activate the required concept knowledge. As students enter the classroom with different prior knowledge, supports need to be adapted to students' needs. Thus, we designed a two-part argumentation training. The first part is a diagnostic training, in which students receive training for building arguments while their performance is analyzed. The second part consists of four trainings, adapted to the area in which each student experienced the greatest challenges, e.g., (1) in differentiating between argument components, (2) in applying concept knowledge, (3) in both areas, or (4) in building multivariate arguments. The tasks in the trainings center on building arguments on alternative reaction pathways in organic chemistry and combine a multitude of chemical concepts, such as nucleophilicity, basicity, enthalpy, or entropy. There were 64 students enrolled in an Organic Chemistry II course who participated in the training. Evaluation of the two-part training revealed (a) the effectiveness of the training and (b) how students evaluated the training themselves.

Facilitating the transition to digital teaching and learning requires more than providing access to technical equipment and digital content. For students, the challenges they encounter influence how they benefit from digital learning scenarios in chemistry. The rapid transition into online learning, as experienced in spring 2020, serves as a magnifying glass to determine supportive aspects of digital learning and teaching. This chapter explores the perspective of students on the challenges and supportive factors in the transition to online learning. It also describes a model for teaching support that addressed the needs of instructors, with two case descriptions. One case highlights the students’ perspective from an interview study with second-year chemistry students from across four countries, on how they adjusted to and resolved challenges while learning chemistry digitally. The results provide interesting insights into creating favourable pre-conditions for digital chemistry learning and teaching. The second case illustrates an example of a multi-tiered network model. This model was founded for supporting faculty in digital teaching that goes beyond generic technical tips and tricks, catering instead for discipline-specific support at the local level that also connects to and informs broader initiatives at a higher institutional level.