RESEARCH ARTICLE

 

Students' competence in some problem solving skills throughout their B.Sc. course

 

 

Mailoo Selvaratnam^*

Faculty of Agriculture, Science and Technology, North-West University, Mafikeng Campus, 2735 South Africa

 

 

---

ABSTRACT

The main objective of the study was to test students' competence, throughout all their years (first, second and final years) of a B.Sc. course, in five important types of problem solving skills: information processing skills; skills concerning equations; graphical skills; three-dimensional visualization skills and inverse proportion reasoning skills. The study method used was the analysis of students' solutions to carefully designed questions. Students' performance was found to be poor for most of the skills tested. For example, more than half of all the students tested could not deduce information organized in equations, transform quantitative information in statements into equations and use inverse-proportion reasoning to do a calculation; and about a quarter of the students could not combine two equations and also could not visualize three-dimensionally the drawing of a cube. The study also showed that there wasn't much improvement in cognitive skills as students progressed from year to year. This suggests insufficient emphasis being placed on training students in cognitive skills in their courses. Since the development of students' competence in cognitive abilities should be an important objective of education courses, there is a need for explicitly identifying important cognitive skills and strategies and training students in them. Such training should be integrated with the teaching of content knowledge.

Keywords: Cognitive skills, thinking skills, problem solving, students' difficulties with cognitive skills

---

 

 

Full text available only in pdf format.

 

 

References

1 R.J. Marzano, R.S. Brand, C.S. Hughes, B.F. Jones, B.Z Presseisen, S.C. Rankin and C. Suhor, Dimensions of Thinking: A Framework for Curriculum Instruction, Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, Alexandria, VA, U.S.A., 1988.         [ Links ]

2 B.F. Jones and F. Idol, eds., Dimensions of Thinking and Cognitive Instruction, NCREL Publications, Illinois, U.S.A., 1990.         [ Links ]

3 B.K. Beyer, Developing a Thinking Skills Program, Allyn and Bacon, Boston, U.S.A., 1988.         [ Links ]

4 A.L. Costa, (Ed.), Developing Minds: A Resource Book for Teaching Thinking, Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, Alexandria, VA, U.S.A., 2001        [ Links ]

5 M. Selvaratnam and M.J. Frazer, Problem Solving in Chemistry, Heinemann, London, 1982        [ Links ]

6 H.S. Fogler and S.E. LeBlanc. Strategies for Creating Problem Solving, 2nd edn., Prentice Hall Pearson Education, New Jersey, U.S.A., 2008        [ Links ]

7 D.N. Perkins, Outsmarting IQ: The Emerging Science of Learnable intelligence, Free Press, New York, U.S.A., 1995        [ Links ]

8 R.J Sternberg and E. Grigosenko, Teaching for successful intelligence: To increase student learning and achievement. Skylight Training and Publishing, Illinois, U.S.A., 2000.         [ Links ]

9 R.J. Marzano and D.J. Pickering, Dimensions of Learning Trainers Manual, 2nd edn., Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, Alexandria, VA, U.S.A., 1997.         [ Links ]

10 W.R. Robinson, J. Chem. Educ. 2003, 80, 978-982.         [ Links ]

11 U. Zoller, Int. J. Sci. Educ. 2002, 24, 185-203.         [ Links ]

12 H.P. Drummond, Students' Competence in the Intellectual Skills and Strategies needed for Learning South African Matriculation Chemistry Effectively, Ph.D. thesis, North-West University, Mafikeng, South Africa, 2003.         [ Links ]

13 H.P. Drummond and M. Selvaratnam, S. Afr. J. Chem. 2008, 61, 56-62.         [ Links ]

14 H.P. Drummond, and M. Selvaratnam, S. Afr. J. Chem. 2009. 62, 179-184.         [ Links ]

15 M. Selvaratnam, S. Afr. J. Sci. 2011, 107(1/2), Art. 262, 20-26.         [ Links ]

16 M. Selvaratnam, S. Afr. J. Chem. 2011, 64, 44-48.         [ Links ]

17 A.H. Johnstone, J. Chem. Educ. 1997, 74, 262-268        [ Links ]

18 P. Eggen and D. Kauchak, Educational Psychology, Windows on Classrooms, 7th edn., Pearson Merrrill Prentice Hall Publishing, New Jersey, U.S.A., 2007.         [ Links ]

19 M. Grjasswirth, A.F. Salny and A. Stillson, Match Wits with Mensa, De Capo Press, Cambridge, 1988, p. 66.         [ Links ]

20 D. Perkins and Salomen, Teaching for Transfer, Ref. 5, p. 370-378.         [ Links ]

21 S.R. Covey, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Simon and Schuster, New York, U.S.A., 1989.         [ Links ]

22 A.L Costa and B. Kallick, Discovering and Exploring Habits of Mind, Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, Alexandria, VA, U.S.A., 2000.         [ Links ]

 

 

Received 7 July 2011
Revised 15 September 2011
Accepted 20 September 2011

 

 

Submitted by invitation to celebrate 2011 the 'International Year of Chemistry'.
* E-mail: mailoo.selvaratnam@nwu.ac.za