Cargando…

The Complexity of Reasoning about and with Chemical Representations

[Image: see text] External visual representations of chemical entities and processes (chemical representations) play a critical role in chemical thinking and practice. They support reasoning by serving as bridges between the macroscopic world and the chemical models that help us make sense of the pr...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor principal: Talanquer, Vicente
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: American Chemical Society 2022
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9795563/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36590267
http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/jacsau.2c00498
_version_ 1784860288805240832
author Talanquer, Vicente
author_facet Talanquer, Vicente
author_sort Talanquer, Vicente
collection PubMed
description [Image: see text] External visual representations of chemical entities and processes (chemical representations) play a critical role in chemical thinking and practice. They support reasoning by serving as bridges between the macroscopic world and the chemical models that help us make sense of the properties and behaviors of substances in our surroundings. Consequently, many chemistry education research studies have been carried out to explore and foster students’ representational competency in our discipline. Nevertheless, in this Perspective I argue that investigations in this area would benefit from a more in-depth analysis of how the distinctive characteristics of chemical representations affect student reasoning. I identify four dimensions of variation in these representations (iconicity, quantitativeness, granularity, dimensionality) that affect students’ ability to interpret, connect, generate, and use chemical representations. I discuss how these features influence the unpacking or packing of information during different types of tasks, affecting sense-making and perceptual competency. Implications for chemistry education research and practice are considered.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-9795563
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2022
publisher American Chemical Society
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-97955632022-12-29 The Complexity of Reasoning about and with Chemical Representations Talanquer, Vicente JACS Au [Image: see text] External visual representations of chemical entities and processes (chemical representations) play a critical role in chemical thinking and practice. They support reasoning by serving as bridges between the macroscopic world and the chemical models that help us make sense of the properties and behaviors of substances in our surroundings. Consequently, many chemistry education research studies have been carried out to explore and foster students’ representational competency in our discipline. Nevertheless, in this Perspective I argue that investigations in this area would benefit from a more in-depth analysis of how the distinctive characteristics of chemical representations affect student reasoning. I identify four dimensions of variation in these representations (iconicity, quantitativeness, granularity, dimensionality) that affect students’ ability to interpret, connect, generate, and use chemical representations. I discuss how these features influence the unpacking or packing of information during different types of tasks, affecting sense-making and perceptual competency. Implications for chemistry education research and practice are considered. American Chemical Society 2022-11-09 /pmc/articles/PMC9795563/ /pubmed/36590267 http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/jacsau.2c00498 Text en © 2022 The Author. Published by American Chemical Society https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/Permits non-commercial access and re-use, provided that author attribution and integrity are maintained; but does not permit creation of adaptations or other derivative works (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
spellingShingle Talanquer, Vicente
The Complexity of Reasoning about and with Chemical Representations
title The Complexity of Reasoning about and with Chemical Representations
title_full The Complexity of Reasoning about and with Chemical Representations
title_fullStr The Complexity of Reasoning about and with Chemical Representations
title_full_unstemmed The Complexity of Reasoning about and with Chemical Representations
title_short The Complexity of Reasoning about and with Chemical Representations
title_sort complexity of reasoning about and with chemical representations
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9795563/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36590267
http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/jacsau.2c00498
work_keys_str_mv AT talanquervicente thecomplexityofreasoningaboutandwithchemicalrepresentations
AT talanquervicente complexityofreasoningaboutandwithchemicalrepresentations