#Scaffolding design example how to

Contrasting case A allows determining studentsРІР‚в„ў understanding of the particulate nature of matter, by giving the learner three contrasting drawings. FigureР’В 1 shows exemplary contrasting cases for different contexts. The idea of contrasting representations can be used as a general instructional tool in various instances. Depending on the stage of expertise of the students, different contrasting cases can be grouped together to stepwise develop, apply, or expand a concept ( Graulich & Schween, 2018 Schmitt & Schween, 2018). the deep structure of concepts ( Gick & Paterson, 1992 Schwartz & Martin, 2004).

#Scaffolding design example how to

how to solve a given problem ( Rittle-Johnson & Star, 2007, 2009) or conceptual learning, i.e. The extensive research on the use of contrasting cases in various disciplines has revealed two fundamental advantages: First, students notice information they might otherwise overlook, this could be procedural learning, i.e. Students, who work with contrasting cases are more engaged in discerning critical, differentiating, or common features of two or more cases. A meta-analysis on studies using the idea of contrasting cases instead of single cases in various disciplines has shown that purposefully designed comparisons help students discriminate more of the possible variables, which are relevant in a problem situation ( Alfieri, Nokes-Malach, & Schunn, 2013).

A problem format that has been used widely in educational studies of the last decades is to introduce variation, which means to combine two cases that slightly differ and prompt learners to critique or reflect about the contrasted cases ( Bussey, Orgill, & Crippen, 2013). One chemical reaction mechanism is presented after another, often without showcasing the similarities and differences. chemical reactions, are examined sequentially, which is typical in traditional organic chemistry courses. This surface approach is reinforced when cases, e.g. As a result, they have difficulties in retrieving the relevant concepts underlying various cases and often rely on recall ( Chi, Feltovich, & Glaser, 1981 Gentner, Loewenstein, & Thompson, 2003). Students in general tend to focus on surface features and encode cases in a situation-specific manner ( Gentner, 1989). Presenting students with a variety of chemical reactions, as it is common in traditional chemistry courses at the tertiary level, often does not engage them to reflect on underlying implicit causes for a chemical phenomenon. Keywords: contrasting cases organic chemistry scaffolding reasoning Introduction In addition to having contrasting cases as a good problem format, the idea of scaffolding studentsРІР‚в„ў reasoning while solving contrasting cases through the use of instructional prompts that scaffold the reasoning process will be exemplarily showcased for mechanistic reasoning in organic chemistry. This paper will discuss the importance of asking questions in chemistry teaching and highlights the idea of contrasting cases, drawn from cognitive psychology, as a task design principle. Structuring studentsРІР‚в„ў reasoning process through instructional prompts or structured worksheets supports students in activating and connecting knowledge pieces in a more meaningful way and positively slows down their fast decision-making process. Here the idea of scaffolding studentsРІР‚в„ў answering process comes into play. Even with designing clever problems, students may not use a larger variety of chemistry ideas and connect them in meaningful ways. Some problems may cause an algorithmic or a surface approach.

Although tasks and problems are a central part of teaching and assessments in the chemistry classroom, they may not engage students in deep reasoning or in a way that is intended through a task. Designing problems and learning activities is a key factor to initiating studentsРІР‚в„ў engagement with the course material and influencing their reasoning processes.