Chemistry Education: Ten Heuristics To Tame

Students in our chemistry classes often generate shallow responses to our questions and problems. They fail to recognize relevant cues in making judgments and decisions about the properties of chemical substances and processes, and make hasty generalizations that frequently lead them astray. Results from research in the psychology of decision making can help us better understand how students approach chemistry tasks under conditions of limited knowledge, time, or motivation. In this contribution, I describe 10 cognitive heuristics that are often responsible for biases in student thinking. Helping students tame these heuristics may allow us to foster more meaningful learning in chemistry classrooms.

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