Teaching Experimental Research On Cultivating Middle School Students’ Chemical Problem Solving Ability Based On ACT-R Theory

The "2017 edition of the General High School Chemistry Curriculum Standards" emphasizes that students should have the ability to discover and solve problems,linking problem-solving ability with the five core competencies.When students are learning elemental compounds,they can only memorize a large amount of dispersed chemical declarative knowledge by rote.When solving problems with related elemental compounds,the learning efficiency is low and the cognitive load is high.How to help students solve the problem of complex and declarative knowledge listing in elemental compounds? This study took inorganic "carbon and its compounds" as an example,and proposed a teaching strategy and case study for the four stages of knowledge processing based on the core production formula of ACT-R(Adaptive Control of Thought-Rational)theory(declarative knowledge is programmed through the production formula),helping students solve the problem of a large amount of chemical declarative knowledge dispersion in elemental compounds,improving their learning efficiency in the problemsolving process,and reducing cognitive load.Starting from the literature,this article elaborated on what ACT-R theory is,how it has been developed to this day,how ACT-R theory is integrated with subject teaching,and the research feasibility of cultivating middle school students’ chemical problemsolving ability based on the production of ACT-R theory.Starting from empirical research,this article conducted a 2-week educational quasi experiment(the experimental class is taught based on ACT-R theory teaching cases,while the control class is taught in a routine manner),exploring the comparative results of teaching experiments on all students(whether the teaching strategy based on the ACT-R theory production can improve the learning efficiency of all students in the problem-solving process)and teaching experiments on students of different academic levels(whether the teaching strategy based on the ACT-R theory production can improve the learning efficiency of students of different academic levels in the problem-solving process,and reduce the cognitive load of students of different academic levels).To test the effectiveness of teaching interventions,evaluation questions were developed based on curriculum standards,ACTR theory production equation,and DOK model.Through two rounds of quality testing with over 600 people(fitting test scores with Rasch model)and expert consultation,unified test questions for inorganic "carbon and its compounds"(as test materials for comparing the results of exploratory teaching experiments with all students)and eye movement test questions for students of different academic levels(as test materials for comparing the results of exploratory teaching experiments with students of different academic levels)were corrected.After the educational quasi experiment,the post test team organized a unified post test for all students.Independent sample t-tests were conducted on the scores of all students in the experimental class(Class 1)and the control class(Class 2),and it was found that the teaching strategy and teaching cases based on ACT-R had a significant positive impact on all students(the average scores of all students in different DOK levels of test questions: the experimental class>the control class).That was that teaching strategies and cases based on the ACT-R theory had improved students’ learning efficiency in the problem-solving process.At the same time,the post test team conducted eye movement experiments on 18 students from the experimental class and 18 students from the control class,including 6 gifted students,6 normal students,and 6 students with learning difficulties(using test scores,total fixation time,fixation times,standard deviation of pupil area,and PAAS score as comparative indicators).Independent sample t-tests were used to analyze the data of eye movement participants,and the following three conclusions were drawn:(1)When gifted students solved the same batch of problems(DOK1-DOK3),the scores of the experimental class’ s top students were higher(only not significant in DOK1 test scores),and the cognitive load was smaller;(2)When normal students solve the same batch of problems(DOK1-DOK3),the scores of normal students in the experimental class were higher and the cognitive load was smaller.(3)When students with learning difficulties solved the same batch of problems(DOK1-DOK3),the scores of students with learning difficulties in the experimental class were higher(only not significant in DOK3 test scores),and the cognitive load was smaller.It could be seen that the teaching strategy based on the ACT-R theory of "production" had improved the learning efficiency of students of different academic levels in the problemsolving process,and reduced the cognitive load of students of different academic levels.In summary,teaching strategies and cases based on the production of ACT-R theory could help cultivate high school students’ ability to solve chemical problems and to extent enrich chemistry teaching theory.