{"id":107,"date":"2014-04-23T13:25:09","date_gmt":"2014-04-23T17:25:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chemreview.net\/blog\/?page_id=107"},"modified":"2026-03-18T12:49:57","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T16:49:57","slug":"about","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/chemreview.net\/blog\/?page_id=107","title":{"rendered":"About"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>The Multidisciplinary Science of Chemistry Education<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>To teach chemistry, it is helpful to know two sciences:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Molecular behavior (chemistry) and<\/li>\n<li>How the brain learns (cognitive science).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Nearly all of us teaching chemistry have dozens of academic chemistry credits &#8212; and few credits in the cognitive science that, being science, could help us design more effective instruction.\u00a0 But there\u2019s a good reason for that.<\/p>\n<p>Until about 2000, not much about how the brain solves problems was known with scientific certainty.\u00a0 Between 2000 and 2010, as research was assisted by new technologies, views on the implications of cognitive research were debated among cognitive scientists.<strong><sup>1<\/sup><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Since 2010, on a substantial number of findings of cognitive research with implications for chemistry instruction, nearly all cognitive experts have been in agreement. \u00a0When significant findings are uncontested for ten years, they are generally recognized to have become consensus science.<\/p>\n<p>A key finding of this new consensus:\u00a0 When solving the types of problems we assign in pre-graduate school chemistry, the student brain has severe difficulty when trying to solve by \u201cunderstanding based on concepts,\u201d but has strength in recalling procedures that have successfully solved past problems.\u00a0 As University of Virginia cognitive scientist Daniel Willingham summarizes, cognitive studies nearly always find \u201cunderstanding is remembering in disguise.\u201d<strong><sup>2<\/sup><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>For many of us, this finding is both unexpected and disappointing.\u00a0 Nonetheless, in seeking to help the student brain learn, it is likely we agree:\u00a0 It is best to be guided by the consensus of science on how the brain learns.<\/p>\n<p>The goal of this blog is to help instructors to both learn the findings of the new cognitive science and apply them to improve instruction.<\/p>\n<p><strong>An Invitation<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In discussions of the implications for instruction of consensus cognitive science, <em>alternative<\/em> and <em>opposing<\/em> viewpoints are welcome in the <em>Comments<\/em>.\u00a0\u00a0 When those viewpoints are lengthy, readers will be invited to post as guest authors.<\/p>\n<p>Feedback is welcome! \u00a0 Email \u00a0 ChemReviewTeam ( at ) ChemReview.Net .<\/p>\n<p><strong><u>References<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>1.\u00a0 <em>Constructivist Instruction: Success or Failure?<\/em>\u00a0 Tobias, S.; Duffy, T. M., Eds.; Routledge: New York, 2009.<\/p>\n<p>2.\u00a0 Willingham, D. T.<em> Why Don&#8217;t Students Like School: A Cognitive Scientist Answers Questions About How the Mind Works and What It Means for the Classroom<\/em>. Wiley: New York, 2009.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">#\u00a0 #\u00a0 #\u00a0 #\u00a0 #<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Multidisciplinary Science of Chemistry Education To teach chemistry, it is helpful to know two sciences: Molecular behavior (chemistry) and How the brain learns (cognitive science). Nearly all of us teaching chemistry have dozens of academic chemistry credits &#8212; and&hellip;  <\/p>\n<p class=\"more-link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/chemreview.net\/blog\/?page_id=107\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-107","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chemreview.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chemreview.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chemreview.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chemreview.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chemreview.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=107"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/chemreview.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/107\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":804,"href":"https:\/\/chemreview.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/107\/revisions\/804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chemreview.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}