An Analysis On Errors Made By Senior High School Students In Chemical Calculation Problem Solving

The chemical calculation question is common in chemical teaching and learning in senior high school stage. The goal of chemical calculation is to help students understand the composition or properties of substances and acquire the chemical core idea and the principle. Many students cannot solve the chemical calculation problem because of the complexity and precision. It is extremely important to research students' psychic mechanism in problem solving. Under the background, this paper analyzes and researches the Grade 11 students' errors in solving chemical calculation.In this paper, the research is composed of two parts:(1) An experimental group (n=79) was asked to solve chemical calculation problems and then their performances as well as errors were examined. The author suggests five kinds of errors: understanding error, knowledge error, reasoning error, psychological error and calculation error. It also analyzes gender differences and the differences in chemical calculation problem solving among different levels (excellent/ average/ poor).(2)129 senior high school students (65 plus 64) were divided into two groups in the same level. Each group was asked to solve one of two chemical calculation problems respectively. Comparing the performances and errors of the two groups, the author shows the reasons of errors and the influential factors in problem solving.How to reduce problem solving errors is a question which needs a long time to answer. The paper gives some recommendation to help teachers and students with chemical calculation.