Targeting the Development of Content Knowledge and Scientific Reasoning: Reforming College-Level Chemistry for Nonscience Majors

摘要

A liberal education curriculum requires discipline-specific courses that develop intellectual and practical skills. With this promise of development, it is crucial that instruction focuses on content knowledge as well as the thinking patterns associated with the content. In chemistry, scientific reasoning is one such skill that students should improve; however, this is a tall order for a traditional lecture course. Through the use of student-centered, content-driven, and reasoning skill-focused interventions, this development may be more likely to occur. This article describes the development, implementation, and evaluation of instructional materials for a chemistry class for non-science majors and makes the materials available to the chemistry education community for broader dissemination.