Problem Solving with Pathways

Abstract

Solving real problems that are novel requires a thought process that is often far removed from what students are taught to do in high school and college chemistry courses. This paper presents a method that permits the students to work out their own logical pathway to a solution, rather than having to recall a previously learned series of solution steps. The students begin by analyzing the information content of the problem, writing out the objective and given, following which they work out a pathway. The reasoning to find the pathway begins from the objective and works backward step-by-step to the given. The answer is obtained by doing the calculations indicated by the pathway. In a study of the effectiveness of this method, it was found that use of the method correlated with greater success for the more difficult problems, but not for the easier problems. Student use of the method increased as the semester progressed, so that by the end of the semester, they used it for most problems. Previous grades in ...