Harvey Williams Faculty of Education University of Manitoba C. ~ i l l i a r nTurner University of Manitoba Lucien Debreuil Winnipeg School Division Winnipeg, Manitoba John Fast a n d John Berestiansky Fort Richmond Collegiate Winnipeg. Manitoba
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Formal Operational Reasoning by Chemistry Students
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Attempts to apply Piagetian theory to teaching and learning in chemistry are often concerned with whether students are operating a t the concrete or formal level and the degree to which concrete operational students can he taught formal concepts.';',:' ~ h i paper s discusses an attempt io identify difficulties experienced by chemistry students in performing specific logical operations a t the formal level. Six logical operations described or implied by Inhelder and Piaget4 were studied. They were proportional, comhinatorial probabilistic, and conditional reasoning; controlling variables and application of a universal rule (conservation of matter ir physical changes). A 20 item multiple choice paper and pencil test was designed to elicit the logical operations.Vhe test was not validated by clinical interviews such as those described by Piaget4; however, internal consistency was established statistically. Subjects were 435 science majors in 1st year chemistryand 426 nonscience majors in a terminal course in chemistry, and 27 students in third . vear . phvsical chemistry . Although the test appeared to he relatively simple, the mean scores achieved by the 3 classes were surprisinglv . . low: first yvar s c i c n c ~m:ijore. 5l'k nnnmajors. 38";;and ;Ird y a r students, 5:1"i. The low ctlrrelation 10. I?) between rest scores and midterm examination scores was not surprising since the test was designed only to assess performance of logical operations while the midterm examination evaluated mastery of factual material as well. Proportional Reasoning Low scores in Proportional Reasoning (first year majors, 56%; nonmajors, 38%; and 3rd year, 62%) are a matter of some concern since the loeic of nronortionalitv is so nrominent in ckffLculty does k t seem to diminish chemistry concepts.
