Representational competence is a critical set of skills for students learning chemistry since communicating with visualizations is an essential component of chemistry instruction. Although a wide body of literature has focused on exploring chemistry students’ representational competence, no studies have examined organic chemistry instructors’ pedagogical content knowledge and beliefs toward developing student representational competence. Knowledge of instructors’ thinking when teaching with visualizations can inform the development of effective instructional practices that assist students in developing representational competence; increased representational competence should also result in increased cognitive achievement. In this qualitative study, fourteen organic chemistry instructors from various institutions were interviewed to ascertain their pedagogical content knowledge and beliefs about developing representational competence in their classrooms. The collected data were inductively coded and examined for patterns in instructors’ thinking using constant comparative analysis. Preliminary findings from this analysis will be presented, as well as implications for chemistry instruction.

Organic chemistry instructors’ pedagogical content knowledge and beliefs toward teaching and learning with representations

Macromolecular Chemistry: The Second Century

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ACS Spring 2020 National Meeting & Expo

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