This study investigated effectiveness of incorporating incorrect worked examples to prompt students to focus on important factors in chemistry word problem-solving. Sixty undergraduate students from the chemistry department at Mississippi State University participated in this study. Correct worked examples were given to half of the students (control), and incorrect worked examples for the other half (treatment). Worked problems were based on the undergraduate general chemistry topic “limiting reagents”. Subjects’ eye movements were tracked using an eye-tracking device to understand where students’ direct visual gaze focused while reading and learning and to measure if learners necessarily attend to the important factors in worked examples. Analysis of eye movement, dwell times and fixation count on AOIs (areas of interest) were statistically compared to determine student engagement with presented worked problems. We found that students who learned with incorrect worked examples engaged more time actively on the learning material compared to the students with correct worked examples. Pre- and posttests were used to measure student retention of knowledge, procedural problem-solving efficacy, and error anticipation. A student survey was conducted to assess student attitudes to determine if incorrect worked examples improve students’ confidence when tasked to analyze new chemistry word problems. This study informs instructional guidelines regarding the importance of implementing example-based learning strategies, with consideration of incorrect examples as an approach to support student attention and retention of concepts.

Incorrect worked examples enhance student visual attention, engagement and retention

2019 Spring National Meeting

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.