Let's frame it differently – analysis of instructors’ mechanistic explanations

Abstract

Research in Organic Chemistry education has revealed students’ challenges in mechanistic reasoning. When solving mechanistic tasks, students tend to focus on explicit surface features, apply fragmented conceptual knowledge, rely on...

“To Be Honest, I Didn’t Even Use the Data”: Organic Chemistry Students’ Engagement in Data Analysis and Interpretation

“…For example, steric hindrance can be a very productive resource, but we observed the singular mode use it unproductively, where they considered the data in a very limited way. These findings align with the assumptions of a resources perspective, which has gained substantially more use within chemistry education research. ,,− These findings add how the cognitive resources activated can dictate how a learner engages in science practices, which is a novel insight. Further, some of these ways (selective, singular, and intuitive) align with the literature about students’ data analysis and interpretation that show how students can ignore or manipulate data to maintain a frame. ,, Finally, these findings confirm other results showing that chemistry students are rather adept at making accurate observations of data, and the difficulty lies in coordinating their frame with these observations to draw conclusions .…”

Patterns of reasoning – exploring the interplay of students’ work with a scaffold and their conceptual knowledge in organic chemistry

“…One reason why the students did not get beyond the non-causal level and argued univariately could be that the prompt did not fit the needs of these students to activate the necessary resources to go beyond a non-causal level and that the prompt did not further encourage them to look for more possible relations. However, it could also be the case that the experience with this type of question was lacking, which could be resolved by reframing the task (Eckhard et al, 2021) (e.g., by changing the wording of the subtask or by giving more examples).…”

Thinking and Learning in Nested Systems: The Individual Level

“…Both intuitive and scientific conceptualizations may be activated in an expert’s mind in a specific situation, but self-regulation processes will likely act to quickly inhibit the intuitive response . One can also expect experts to possess more cognitive flexibility and be able to conceptualize situations differently depending on the context …”

“…57 One can also expect experts to possess more cognitive flexibility and be able to conceptualize situations differently depending on the context. 101 Independently of their level of expertise, individuals are likely to generate initial responses to problems or situations based on the cognitive structures that are more readily available. What happens next will be influenced by a variety of factors, such as personal goals, conditions, motivation, selfregulation skills, emotions, and self-perception.…”