When is a molecule three dimensional? A task‐specific role for imagistic reasoning in advanced chemistry

Abstract

Abstract Imagistic reasoning appears to be a critical strategy for learning and problem solving in the sciences, particularly chemistry; however, little is known about how students use imagistic reasoning on genuine assessment tasks in chemistry. The present study employed a think‐aloud protocol to explore when and how students use imagistic reasoning for problem solving in organic chemistry. The analysis suggests that students employ imagistic reasoning preferentially for translating between various molecular representations. On more complex tasks typical of classroom assessments, the students' problem solving appears mostly dependent on the accuracy of self‐generated inscriptions rather than the use of imagistic reasoning. The results indicate a variable interplay between imagistic reasoning and diagrammatic reasoning that suggests several pedagogical implications for teaching college chemistry. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Sci Ed 95:310–336, 2011

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 85 citations exist upstream.

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.