6th Annual Judith Ramaley Celebration of Research and Creative Scholarship
 
Online Book of Abtracts

Poster #29

Using ‘Thinking Math’ Cognitive Acceleration materials to develop thinking skills in Chemistry

Megan Davis

Faculty Mentor: John C Deming

Cognitive Acceleration materials, developed by Phillip Adey and Michael Shayer, are designed to develop students’ thinking ability.  Within these materials are elementary and secondary level lessons on Math and Science. In each lesson there are five specific pillars: concrete preparation, cognitive conflict, social construction, metacognition and bridging which, when properly implemented, stimulate the development of students’ cognitive abilities.  Cognitive Acceleration builds on the work of Piaget, Vygotsky, and Feuerstein. These materials recognize the different types of thinking (Piaget) as well as include the concept of zone of proximal development (Vygotsky) and metacognition and bridging (Feuerstein).

Within our work we intend to determine if the Cognitive Acceleration, “Thinking Math” materials will benefit the students in a general Chemistry course. For students to excel in Chemistry, they must first understand the fundamentals of how to apply mathematics. It is common for students to score well in math courses and then not be able to apply it to other content areas. If the mathematical reasoning is improved and reasoning ability developed, we think it is reasonable that the chemistry skills and performance will increase respectively.  

Over the spring 2012 semester, students in University Chemistry will attend one “Thinking Math” session per week. During these sessions the students are engaged in thinking abstract thinking. The role of the teacher is to set up a good learning environment and to only intervene when the students have reached their zone of proximal development and are unsure of what to do next. We hope that the increased reasoning ability these cognitive interventions are designed to create will aid in student achievement and will heighten student ability to apply mathematical ideas in a chemistry context.

To measure growth in reasoning ability we will analyze student achievement by comparing post-pre gain scores on Lawson’s Classroom Test of Scientific Reasoning. These scores will be available in May and will be included in the final version of our paper.