The use of higher order cognitive strategies to improve student understanding of high school chemistry concepts

Abstract

In this project, Higher Order Cognitive Strategies (HOCS) were investigated to determine if they helped students' understanding of high school chemistry concepts. Prior to the project, I found my students to be able to take basic chemistry information and work with it at the time, but find limitations in their abilities to transfer the concepts that were learned to other paths or to use them in other situations in the class after they were taught. I investigated their ability to understand chemistry concepts better using HOCS, their ability to answer HOCS questions, their retention of chemistry concepts in long-term memory as a result of HOCS, their attitudes about learning chemistry through HOCS, and attitudes regarding planning and implementation of HOCS units. The results were very indecisive from this study, however, there was support that HOCS may lead to better understanding of chemistry concepts overall. Additionally, it was determined that students did not think they liked learning via HOCS, but that surveys that compared nontreatment and treatment units supported their preference to HOCS.