Problem-solving skills of high school chemistry students

What strategies do high school students use when solving chemistry problems? The purpose for conducting this study was to determine the general problem-solving skills that students use in solving problems involving moles, stoichiometry, the gas laws, and molarity. The strategies were examined for success in problem solving for 266 students of varying proportional reasoning ability, using interviews incorporating the think-aloud technique. Data were coded using a scheme based on Polya's heuristics. Results indicated that successful students and those with high proportional reasoning ability tended to use algorithmic reasoning strategies more frequently than nonsuccessful and low proportional reasoning students. However, the majority of all students solved the chemistry problems using only algorithmic methods, and did not understand the chemical concepts on which the problems were based.     

Differential effects on the achievement of males and females of teaching the particulate nature of chemistry

Chemistry concepts in three 2‐week modules were presented to a treatment and control group of high school students from 10 different high schools. The treatment group was taught using three representations of matter (macroscopic, particulate, and symbolic), whereas only two representations (macroscopic and symbolic) were used with the control group. The treatment group scored significantly higher across the combined score of all three modules. When the data were analyzed for gender–group interactions, females who were taught the particulate representation scored as well as males whereas those who were not taught the particulate representation scored significantly lower than males. Teaching males the particulate representation did not significantly affect males' achievement. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 39: 911–927, 2002     

Aggressive children in a day treatment program: changed outcome and possible explanations

An earlier study (Gabel, Finn & Ahmad, 1988) of severely disturbed children treated in a day hospital program, found that outcome was particularly poor for children with preadmission histories of severe aggressive/destructive behavior. The study reported here compares the outcome in a more recent group of children treated in the same setting with the earlier group's outcome. The recent group of children, like the earlier one, was made up of youngsters who were often from dysfunctional and abusive families. Outcome for aggressive children, including aggressive children with histories of suspected child abuse/maltreatment, was significantly improved. Possible reasons for this improvement in outcome in terms of programmatic changes that had occurred are discussed.     

High school students' ability to solve molarity problems and their analog counterparts

The study investigates the use of analog tasks for determining difficulties that high school chemistry students might encounter in solving molarity problems. Students (n = 619) from five schools completed three tests given throughout the school year. These were: an analog test, a molarity test, and a retention test. The analog task consisted of dissolving lemonade powder for solid sodium hydroxide. Results indicate that the analog task is a predictor of success on the molarity test; that difficulties encountered on the analog test are similar to those on the chemistry test, and that achievement on some types of chemistry problems might be improved by us in analog tasks in instruction.