Problem-solving mindset

Existence of a Problem-Solving Mindset among Students Taking Quantum Mechanics and Its Implications... 

This chapter describes the problem-solving mindset that many chemistry students bring to quantum mechanics classes that was discovered during a study... 

In the course of this chapter, we will routinely use the terms problem solving and problem-solving mindset. We do this deliberately because we believe that the tasks students are working on in quantum mechanics are, in fact, problems for them at the time that they first encounter them. 

The second expectation that students with a problem-solving mindset had related to the answers to questions they were asked on homework and exams. These students expected that the answers they obtained as the result of their calculations were the true and correct values. In other words, the equation used during a problem was expected to give a value that exactly corresponded to... 

The third expectation exhibited by students with a problem-solving mindset is the desire to learn useful material. While such a desire is not unusual, what was surprising was how the students defined the term useful. For many of the students in this study, usefulness was equated with the ability to solve problems, as shown in the following quotes ... 

Because the problem-solving mindset shaped what students expected the class would be like, it also influenced their decisions on what they needed to do to be successful in class. As noted above, students with a problem-solving mindset believed that the purpose of class was to solve problems. For these students, their job was to find the answers to the problems the instructor presented. Moreover, they expected that by looking through the textbook or their class notes they would either find the answer or a solved example problem exactly like the one being asked. 

In order to do what they thought would make them successful in the course, students with a problem-solving mindset adopted a number of strategies that they felt made obtaining the answer easier. These strategies were superficial because the students concentrated on shallow, surface-level features of the tasks they encountered, not on any deep conceptual understanding. Some of the strategies students used were ... 

The effect of the problem-solving mindset was clear students made few connections with the conceptual aspects of the material. The evidence for this was found in how these students studied for their exams. They tended to perceive that there were many equations they had to learn, and, as the following extracts from tutoring sessions illustrates, they adopted the technique of brute force memorization. 

Compare the process a scientist uses in building a mathematical, theoretical model to the process a student with a problem-solving mindset uses to solve a typical textbook problem. When creating a model, the scientist first identifies the relevant aspects of a phenomenon and then generates a mathematical description encapsulating those aspects. For the student, the process is reversed ... 

Our results raise several unanswered questions. First, and perhaps foremost, how widespread is the problem-solving mindset Although the problem-solving mindset was identified based on analysis of comments made by the students involved in this study, it is not reasonable to assume that these students are unusual or unique. There is every reason to believe that these students are similar to their peers, upper-level chemistry, physics and chemical engineering students throughout the country. 

What effect does a problem-solving mindset have on students For the students in this study, most of the difficulties they had learning quantum mechanics resulted from the incongruity between the structure of quantum mechanics and the problem-solving mindset, and not from conceptual difficulties within the material of quantum mechanics. 

In order to anticipate the effect of a problem-solving mindset on classes other than physical chemistry, it is useful to consider the genesis of the mindset and ask the question Why did so many of the students in this study have a problem-solving mindset A possible explanation is conditioning. As mentioned above, the students in this study had years of experience in science and math classes before they came to physical chemistry and most of these classes, both at the university level and before, were organized around a central theme of solving problems and exercises. 

---