Solving problems in organic chemistry often requires the consideration of reaction
mechanisms. As such, much research has been devoted to the examination of how students …

Visual representations play a critical role in enhancing science, technology, engineering,
and mathematics (STEM) learning. Educational psychology research shows that adding …

Organic chemistry reaction mechanisms are central to the discipline of organic chemistry but
challenging for students to learn and for instructors to teach. Due to the unique challenges …

Organic chemistry education is one of the youngest research areas among all chemistry
related research efforts, and its published scholarly work has become vibrant and diverse …

Organic reaction mechanisms are often represented by the electron-pushing formalism and
reaction coordinate diagrams. These representations pose a challenge to students because …

Organic chemistry is often promoted as a course designed to cultivate skill in scientific “ways
of thinking”. Expert organic chemists perceive their field as one in which plausible answers …

In order to understand how students approach multi-variate problems, we report a study on
the cues organic chemistry graduate students perceive from mechanism tasks, and the …

Acquiring conceptual understanding seems to be one of the main challenges students face
when studying organic chemistry. Traditionally, organic chemistry presents an extensive …

In most STEM instruction, students interact with visual representations, which can be
presented in either in a physical or a virtual mode or in a blended form that combines both …

In this study, we continue our efforts to address students' difficulties understanding organic
chemistry, particularly in connecting structure to function and using the language of …