CHEMISTRY EDUCATION: RESEARCH AND PRACTICE IN EUROPE 2001, Vol. 2, No. 3, pp. 285-301	RESEARCH REPORT Problem solving and other higher-order cognitive skills (HOCS)

Kam-Wah Lucille LEE, ¹ Woh-Un TANG, ²
Ngoh-Khang GOH, ¹ and Lian-Sai CHIA ^1
1 Nanyang Technological University, National Institute of Education (Singapore)
² Hougang Secondary School (Singapore)

THE PREDICTING ROLE OF COGNITIVE VARIABLES IN PROBLEM SOLVING IN MOLE CONCEPT

ABSTRACT: This work is an extension of the two previous studies which aims at verifying the importance of the cognitive variables to problem solving in Chemistry across topics and levels. The previous studies show that the five cognitive variables namely, Specific Knowledge, Non-Specific but Relevant Knowledge, Concept Relatedness, Idea Association and Problem Translating Skill, are the important predictors of problem-solving performance in the topic of Grade 12 Electrochemistry. This present study involved 115 Grade 9 Chemistry students, aged between 13 and 16, solving Mole Concept problems with the familiarity levels ranging from familiar to partially familiar. Four of the five cognitive variables, Specific Knowledge, Concept Relatedness, Idea Association and Problem Translating Skill, have been found to be significant in predicting problem-solving performance with Idea Association being the most significant. The study also suggests that the difference in the topics and levels appeared to have little effect on the importance of these variables on problem-solving performance. [Chem. Educ. Res. Pract. Eur.: 2001, 2, 285-301]

KEY WORDS: problem solving; cognitive variables; mole concept

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