Organic chemistry: encouraging problem solving, not goal scoring

When it comes to ‘learning’ organic chemistry, students often resort to rote memorisation instead of developing an understanding of the underlying chemistry. This isn’t entirely unexpected but unfortunately, it’s precisely this way of thinking that contributes to the challenge. When students are asked why they are proposing a particular mechanistic step, they often reply: ‘it gets me to the product.’ This means-end-analysis does allow problem solvers to reduce the gap between initial and goal states (ie reactants and products). This research discusses whether this approach prevents the use of other problem-solving strategies.