Student Construction of Mental Models: A Framework for the Evaluation
of Inductive Teaching Methods in Chemistry
Research Students
.This project addresses one of the fundamental questions regarding the use of inductive teaching methods (ITM) in chemistry, the impact of ITMs at the students’ cognitive conceptual level. Further, it seeks to apply this knowledge to the assessment, and evaluation of these methods.A better understanding of the impact of ITMs is of paramount importance for improving the methodology. In order to develop activities, and intervene most effectively, instructors must know the structure and processes in the mind of the learner.
Our framework for the project is the concept of the mental model as proposed by Lesh, et al. (2000). We will apply this to four general concept areas in chemistry, equilibrium, Periodic trends, Atomic and molecular structure, and chemical kinetics. These areas represent important fundamental concepts that chemistry students build on throughout their study of chemistry. Further we will look at how some common educational tools influence the development of students’ mental models in these concept areas.
We intend to integrate our understanding of student mental models into an action research model aimed at improving inductive teaching methodologies. Mental model construction provides information about the structure and processes of learning. A prerequisite for learning is the construction of the constituents of a mental model, so identifying the existence of the constituents of a mental model of a chemical concept is a valid assessment of the efficacy of an ITM. Since a mental model is not just recall of, or familiarization with chemical concepts, but is a thinking tool that is later applied to unfamiliar domain specific problems, an effective ITM will scaffold the construction of a mental model that can be applied to problems common to the particular domain. Effective and detailed assessment and evaluation of ITMs using the framework of mental models will allow improvements in both the development of material, and in the educational techniques used during the activity.
Here is a copy of the complete proposal
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