Problem Solving in Chemistry

When the first author began work in chemical education, he became interested in research on problem solving for several reasons. First, problem solving is what chemists do, regardless of whether they work in the area of synthesis, spectroscopy, theory, analysis, or the characterization of compounds. Second, it was clear that individuals who were successful in chemistry courses either developed good problem solving skills — more or less on their own —or brought these skills to their chemistry courses. Finally, it was obvious that we weren’t doing as good a job as we could in helping less successful students learn how to build problem solving skills.