The aim of this study was to elucidate and describe students' thinking about organic chemistry reactions of small versus large drug-like molecules. Thirty-six students enrolled in a Pharmaceutical Organic Chemistry course participated in individual, think-aloud interviews. The interview protocol included questions about five reactions with the…

Students often face difficulties when presented with chemical structures and asked to relate them to properties of those substances. Learning to relate structures to properties, both in predicting properties based on chemical structures and interpreting properties to infer structure, is pivotal in students' education in chemistry. This troublesome…

Research in chemistry education has revealed that students going through their undergraduate and graduate studies in organic chemistry have a fragmented conceptual knowledge of the subject. Rote memorization, rule-based reasoning, and heuristic strategies seem to strongly influence students' performances. There appears to be a gap between what we…

Describes research techniques in chemistry education that are based on listening to learners. Gives a brief history of think-aloud techniques and works through an example study to show considerations that must be made when doing this kind of research. Issues raised include conceptualization of research studies, preparation for their…