Tweak your questions to improve students’ problem-solving skills

Repeatedly practising questions helps students to hone their problem-solving skills. You might have noticed that worksheets and question banks in textbooks tend to organise problems by topic. In contrast, exam questions are often a mix of types and topics. Researchers have investigated the effect of mixed and interleaved questions on students’ performance. Senior lecturer in pure and applied chemistry at the University of Strathclyde, Fraser Scott explains what they found and translates this research into tips for your science teaching.