The Qualitative Study of Talented High School Students While Solving Chemical Equilibrium Problems in Aqueous Solution Author: Jhy-Ming Horng, Hsiao-Hsin Tsai(Department of Chemistry, N.T.N.U)

Vol.&No.：Vol. 47, No.1
Date：April 2002
Pages：15-38
DOI：10.6300/JNTNU.2002.47(1).02

Abstract：

The purpose of this study was to explore the performance of talented high school students while solving chemical equilibrium problems in aqueous solution. The subjects were asked to think aloud while solving problems and their protocols were analyzed to describe their problem-solving behaviors and induce those factors affecting success of problem-solving. All subjects' performances were characterized by the nature of both successful problem solvers and novices. The characters of successful problem solvers performed were correct chemical representation, perceiving the problems as tasks deserving careful analysis and reasoning, using good heuristics, and constructing a solving plan by thhe conceptualization of domain specific knowledge.In addition, they also performed the nature of novices which included showing knowledge gaps about the main concepts of problems, possessing chemistry misconceptions, ignoring the limit of procedural knowledge, using algorithm incorrectly and using the algorithmic strategy.
The results indicated that those factors affecting success of problem-solving included appropriate problem representation, the amount and quality of chemistry content knowledge, using correct algorithm, chemical mathematical skills, effective strategy, checking of the inconsistency among qualitative reasoning and quantitative calculation and the difficulty of problems.

Keywords：senior high school, talented students, problem solving, science education, chemical equilibrium

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