The topic I just finished teaching (moles & stoichiometry) has given me a little more insight into the minds of high school sophomores.
Stoichiometry presents a challenge for sophomores because they have a lot of trouble with layers of abstraction. They’ve gotten good at solving problems that involve a single, predictable sequence of steps, but when there are multiple different sequences, any one of which may or may not be involved in a particular problem. When they have too many decisions to make, they get lost in the details.
I spent probably two class days just on the problem-solving aspects–how to pick the numbers out of a problem and assign them to variables, how to keep track of the major sections of a problem so they can find themselves again after they return from each quest, etc. Some kids took that part of the discussion seriously, and made a point of learning and internalizing it. Other kids decided that it was stupid and unnecessary.
I gave the test on the topic to half of my classes today and I’m giving it to the other half tomorrow. It’s a two-question test (though each question has five parts). Each part builds on a previous part (though they get full credit for each part they do right regardless of whether they started with the right value or not). The kids who took the problem-solving lessons seriously? Just about all of them said the test was a little annoying, and had a couple of questions that were worded is a slightly confusing way, but overall not too bad. The kids who gave lip service to the problem-solving lessons but didn’t take them seriously? Just about all of them said the test was very difficult. And the kids who goofed off and didn’t pay attention at all during the problem-solving lessons? They left at least half of the questions blank and stormed off, muttering about how the test was ridiculous and impossible.
All this became evident this afternoon, as two of my students who will be taking the test tomorrow stayed for extra help from 2:30 until 5:45. During those three hours, these two students went from being completely lost to feeling like they have totally mastered the skill, to the point where they told me that if they don’t each get an A on the test, it will be because the test is too difficult. And they’re right.
Of course, they expressed the lingering self-doubts on the way out–“but the word is that the test is impossible.” I reminded them to think about which students said that, and I mentioned the names of some their friends whom I thought were as well-prepared as they were. Those friends were among the ones who had said “a little annoying, but not too bad overall.”
I suppose I could feel vinidcated by all this, but really I just feel sad for all those kids who could have learned the problem-solving skills they need with just a few hours of work, but never will. Thes kids will go through life blaming other people for their failures, never realizing how close they were to mastering the skills, or how little effort it would have actually taken.
If you think you can do a thing or think you can’t do a thing, you’re right.
— Henry Ford
