The transition from high school to college is often difficult for many of our students, but particularly first generation, Hispanic, and low-income students. Most traditionally taught high school students have an external rather than an internal Locus of Control (LC). Hispanic cultural and low-income students have an added difficulty in having an unusually high Power Distance Index (PDI), (Hofstede, 1997; Payne et al., 2006)which tends to be much higher than the standard American academic culture.Dynamic intuitive problem solving and progressive graphical analysis provide an opportunity to proactively address the paradigm shift between high school and college STEM courses. By using intuitive problem solving methods in introductory chemistry courses students can begin to move from an external to a more internal Locus of Control while providing a low Power Distance Index environment within the classroom.The attendees will participate in a 'hands-on minds-on' chemistry problem solving session as a way to illustrate the principles discussed during this talk. It is hoped that participants will come away from this interactive session with an in-depth, personal understanding of how intuitive problem-solving in a classroom can be of direct benefit to their students, especially those transitioning from a traditional high school learning environment to college. Participants will develop a working awareness of Hofstede's cultural dimensions and how it affects students from Hispanic cultures as they enter college STEM classrooms. They will explore how the intuitive problem solving method can help support a student's internal Locus of Control as he or she is transitioning into the college environment. Chemistry will be used as a focus point, but this method provides a robust technique that can be used across the STEM curriculum.

Using intuitive problem solving and graphical analysis to alter a student's locus of control in chemistry

248th National Meeting (2014)

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