Arrows on the Page Are Not a Good Gauge: Evidence for the Importance of Causal Mechanistic Explanations about Nucleophilic Substitution in Organic Chemistry

Autor/inn/en	Crandell, Olivia M.; Lockhart, Macy A.; Cooper, Melanie M.
Titel	Arrows on the Page Are Not a Good Gauge: Evidence for the Importance of Causal Mechanistic Explanations about Nucleophilic Substitution in Organic Chemistry
Quelle	In: Journal of Chemical Education, 97 (2020) 2, S.313-327 (15 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Zusatzinformation	ORCID (Crandell, Olivia M.) ORCID (Cooper, Melanie M.)
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0021-9584
Schlagwörter	Organic Chemistry; Science Process Skills; Scientific Concepts; Undergraduate Students; Logical Thinking; Concept Formation; Retention (Psychology) + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Organische Chemie; Concept learning; Begriffsbildung; Merkfähigkeit
Abstract	This three-year study builds on prior work analyzing students' causal mechanistic explanations about acid-base reactions. Here we extend that work to characterize and investigate how students construct causal mechanistic explanations of simple nucleophilic substitution reactions. After an initial pilot study, we adopted a modified version of the original task prompt which was used in two subsequent years to compare responses from students enrolled in a transformed organic chemistry course (Organic Chemistry, Life, the Universe and Everything) and a traditional organic chemistry course. Student responses were sampled in the middle of the first semester organic chemistry, just after they had learned the material, and once again at the end of the course, to identify how responses changed over time. Our findings from this study include (1) eliciting causal mechanistic explanations requires careful scaffolding to activate productive elements of a response, and (2) students from a transformed course are more likely to construct a causal mechanistic explanation at the end of Organic Chemistry 2 than students from the control group, suggesting that if students are to retain the use of valuable knowledge, this must be supported by instruction and course expectations. (As Provided).
Anmerkungen	Division of Chemical Education, Inc. and ACS Publications Division of the American Chemical Society. 1155 Sixteenth Street NW, Washington, DC 20036. Tel: 800-227-5558; Tel: 202-872-4600; e-mail: eic@jce.acs.org; Web site: http://pubs.acs.org/jchemeduc
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2024/1/01