This project seeks to address one of the fundamental questions regarding the use of inductive teaching methods (ITM) in chemistry; that is, what is the impact of ITMs at the students' cognitive conceptual level. Further, it seeks to apply these findings to the assessment and evaluation of these teaching methods. Intellectual Merit. A better understanding of the impact of ITMs is of paramount importance for improving the ITM methodology. In order to develop activities, and to intervene most effectively, instructors must know the structure and processes in the mind of the learner. Moreover, the research undertaken in this project is advancing the knowledge of how students learn chemistry in general. The framework for the study is the concept of a mental model as proposed by Lesh and coworkers in 2000. The research project is designed as a cross-case study with comparison and contrast between cases, with the goal of finding the common constituents of the mental model. The method is single participant interviews. The data collection techniques are think aloud protocols and thought revealing activities. Four general concept areas in chemistry, equilibrium, periodic trends, atomic and molecular structure, and chemical kinetics, are being studied. These areas represent important fundamental concepts that chemistry students build on throughout their study of chemistry. Further, the project looks at how some common educational tools influence the development of students' mental models in these concept areas. Broader Impacts. The understanding of student mental models is being integrated 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 can 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 allows for improvements both in the development of materials, and in the educational techniques used during the activity. Successful development of such assessment methods is expected to have a far reaching impact, since they provide a generalized scheme for developing and evaluating ITMs at the conceptual level.
