Abstract
The focus of this present study was on understanding how students solve problems in stereochemistry. In particular, how students solve problems with different representations of moleculars, and the idiosyncratics of their problem-solving strategies. Subjects were individually interviewed by the researcher using the think-aloud method. With this method subjects were given tasks and asked to describe how they were solving the task. The data consist of a transcript of each interview and written work the subject produced. All interviews were tape-recorded and videotaped for later transcription and analysis. The findings suggest that on average, the more successful students out-performed the less successful students in all four types of questions (namely chemical formula, 2D and 3D representations in a paper, and a real molecular model). The biggest difference between the successful students and unsuccessful students was on Type II which required the students to decide what type of isomer a compound is from a planary representation. The biggest difference on their performance indicates that the more successful students were able to transform a 2-D representation to a more useful representation for visualizing spatial relationships among atoms. The smallest difference was on Type IV which provided the students with concrete models for solving problems. This finding suggests that most students were beneficial from receiving 3-D models. One explanation is that it might reduce the studentsch39r cognitive load on examining the moleculars from a 2-D perspective.