“To Be Honest, I Didn’t Even Use the Data”: Organic Chemistry Students’ Engagement in Data Analysis and Interpretation (Journal Article)

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Abstract-

There has been extensive work within chemistry education research to characterize organic chemistry students’ engagement in key science practices like “constructing explanations” and “engaging in argument from evidence”. Less has been done to consider how organic chemistry students interact with empirical data, outside of spectral data, which typically warrants substantial instructional attention. In this qualitative study, we explore how organic chemistry students engage with empirical data, use data to evaluate a model, and integrate data and models to generate an argument. Twenty semistructured interviews using a carefully scaffolded task were conducted. The task engaged students in considering two mechanistic pathways for a syn halogenation and then encountering percent yield data for syn bromination and syn chlorination. Using data frame theory, results show qualitatively different approaches to integrating data and frames to draw conclusions. These results have implications for supporting student engagement in these practices; in particular, the results enable the precise location of instances where external intervention would be useful for supporting a learner in fully integrating the empirical data with their model to reach a conclusion.