Investigating The Impact of Modelling in a CSILE on Problem-Solving Strategies and Scientific Reasoning by Students in Complex Chemical Engineering Problems

Abstract

Pre-college and first-year undergraduate students should be able to understand and reason using complex systems in science education. However, such novice students often lack the necessary knowledge or motivation and often rely on their epistemic heuristic reasoning strategies when understanding complex systems and solving complex problems. The use of such heuristics may lead to incorrect inferences as novices lack the simulation awareness for effectively using such strategies and move towards using analytical reasoning. Such awareness cannot be taught implicitly to students unless intervened by methods that help them reflect or test their solutions. Model-Based Reasoning (MBR) activities in Computer Supported Intentional Learning Environments (CSILE) like Knowledge Forum are one such way that I hope to promote such metacognition amongst novice students and scaffold their shift towards a more analytical reasoning approach. My research aims at investigating students' use of different reasoning strategies to make sense of complex chemical systems and related concepts and the ways in which CSILE together with models and simulations can scaffold them to collaboratively refine their epistemic heuristic reasoning strategies to more analytical strategies to solve complex engineering problems effectively.