One of the difficulties in analyzing problem solving performance is that each problem is made up of smaller sub-problems, and the order and connections of those sub-problems can vary. A think-aloud study was done on problem solving in stoichiometry to see how the organization of those sub-problems interacted with students' problem solving performance. A novel coding system, COSINE, was used to code how students proceeded through the problems, which provides for a more detailed analysis of how the students solve each sub-problem. The effect of the organization of the sub-problems on college students' success with stoichiometry problems was investigated using the coding system, with modes of failure changing depending on the position of the sub-problem in the problem schema.

Mapping students' failures in solving stoichiometric problems

247th National Meeting (2014)

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