Using clinical interviews to probe students' understanding of chemistry and problem-solving skills

CHED 229

Thomas J. Greenbowe, tgreenbo@iastate.edu, Department of Chemistry, Iowa State University of Science & Technology, 3051 Gilman Hall, Ames, IA 50011-3111
Asking students to think aloud while solving chemistry problems was one technique used by J. Dudley Herron and his colleagues to probe students' problem solving skills and to assess their understanding of chemistry. This presentation will summarize the research and scholarship resulting from Herron's chemical education research group using this technique. Excerpts from Herron's text The Chemistry Classroom will be discussed. Recent research on students' understanding of thermochemistry, electrochemistry, and kinetics will be presented. The impact of this research will be discussed.