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ERIC Number: EJ1173153
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2018-Mar
Pages: 10
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0021-9584
EISSN: N/A
Compromised Structures: Verbal Descriptions of Mechanism Diagrams
Bhattacharyya, Gautam; Harris, Michael S.
Journal of Chemical Education, v95 n3 p366-375 Mar 2018
We report our research of seven pairs of students enrolled in the second semester of sophomore-level organic chemistry as they attempted to describe (in their own words) and draw, respectively, three electron-pushing diagrams of three-step reaction mechanisms. The tasks' objective was to accurately reproduce the diagrams based solely on the mechanistic language descriptions, because the goals of this research were to identify characteristics of effective descriptions and to describe factors that impede students in constructing those descriptions. Both members of each pair had at least one opportunity to describe and one to draw. To eliminate nonverbal communication the students were unable to see each other but were free to ask questions to their partners. Though most of the groups were able to successfully replicate the diagrams, they struggled to describe and draw chemical structures. Instead of falling back on the IUPAC system of nomenclature, they used iconic symbols and geometric shapes to characterize the structures. The participants were able to communicate the positioning of the curved arrows of the electron-pushing formalism with relative ease. The main instructional implications are that students need (1) intensive help with constructing and using Lewis structures and (2) scaffolding with explanations that gradually transition from explicit aspects of diagrams to the implicit, deeper ones.
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
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research; Tests/Questionnaires
Education Level: Higher Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A