Examining student heuristic usage in a hydrogen bonding assessment

Abstract

This study investigates the role of representational competence in student responses to an assessment of hydrogen bonding. The assessment couples the use of a multiple-select item ("Choose all that apply") with an open-ended item to allow for an examination of students' cognitive processes as they relate to the assignment of hydrogen bonding within a structural representation. Response patterns from the multiple-select item implicate heuristic usage as a contributing factor to students' incorrect responses. The use of heuristics is further supported by the students' corresponding responses to the open-ended assessment item. Taken together, these data suggest that poor representational competence may contribute to students' previously observed inability to correctly navigate the concept of hydrogen bonding. © 2017 by The International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 45(5):411-416, 2017.

Analysis of Pre-Service Science Teachers’ Heuristic Reasoning Processes about Hydrogen Bonding

“…Generally, interviews are done for gathering detailed information in phenomenographic research studies; this is why interviews are held with participants to accurately determine their reasoning about hydrogen bonding and identify the heuristics employed in this process. Students were required to answer a question developed by Miller and Kim (2017) containing the Lewis demonstration of acetic acid. The structural demonstration of acetic acid is presented in Figure 1.…”

“…Students were asked to answer the question of "With which of the numbered molecules can the water molecule form the hydrogen bonding?" Miller and Kim define this question type as a multiple-select format assessment item that requires the 'selection of all valid choices' (Miller & Kim, 2017). During the interviews of this research, students were given 2 minutes to answer the question.…”

“…Heuristic reasoning has been identified and encoded based on the analyses of interview transcripts. Previous research studies that contain interview procedures were also considered during the encoding process of the current study (Miller & Kim, 2017;Ugras, 2018).…”

“…The model of Talanquer is highly significant, and it provides a reference point for future studies in the field of chemistry. For instance, in Miller and Kim's study, on the use of heuristics by students in hydrogen bonding, the model proposed by Talanquer was used as the basis (Miller & Kim, 2017). This research by Miller and Kim is the first and the only study that explains the use of heuristics in chemistry subjects according to the model proposed by Talanquer.…”

Student difficulties during structure–function problem solving

“…This body of work has revealed students’ problems with visual representations (e.g. antibody–antigen interactions) , drawing and explaining the role of hydrogen bonds in protein secondary structure , the use of analogies , enzyme–substrate interactions , and others .…”