Analysing abstraction

Although problem solving is widely acknowledged as a key skill for scientists, the deliberate development of the skill remains a challenge. After an exam, it’s common to hear ‘That wasn’t fair – we’ve never done that before’, when the question simply required the application of knowledge that had been encountered before to an unseen example.

The application of knowledge and skills to a new problem is not such a simple task in practice, as shown in a new study by Melissa Weinrich and Hannah Sevian, which investigated students’ abstraction while solving mechanistic problems in organic chemistry. The lessons learned provide valuable insight for those who teach organic chemistry at all levels.

David Read summarises and reviews the study.