An Examination of Students' Perceptions of the Kekule Resonance Representation Using a Perceptual Learning Theory Lens

Students in chemistry often demonstrate difficulty with the principle of resonance. Despite many attempts to mitigate this difficulty, there have been few attempts to examine the root cause of these issues. In this study, students were assessed for their perception of Kekule structures based on perc...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Chemistry Education Research and Practice 2019-10, Vol.20 (4), p.659-666
Main Authors: Kim, Thomas, Wright, L. Kate, Miller, Kathryn
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Chemistry
College Science
College Students
Concept Formation
Intervention
Learning
Learning theory
Misconceptions
Organic chemistry
Representations
Resonance
Science Instruction
Scientific Principles
Students
Teaching Methods
Visual Perception
Visualization
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Summary:Students in chemistry often demonstrate difficulty with the principle of resonance. Despite many attempts to mitigate this difficulty, there have been few attempts to examine the root cause of these issues. In this study, students were assessed for their perception of Kekule structures based on perceptual learning theory, which is grounded in cognitive mechanisms of visual perception. The data from this assessment shows that students are perceiving inappropriate clues from this representation, which infers that the image itself might be an impediment to learning about resonance. Employment of a meta-representational competence approach was used to address these misperceptions.
ISSN:1756-1108
1109-4028
1109-4028
1756-1108
DOI:10.1039/c9rp00009g