How do students become experts? An in-depth study on the development of domain-specific awareness in a materials chemistry course

ABSTRACT

The need to develop clean-energy storage systems, harvesting technologies, and new functional materials are but a few of the many contemporary challenges in the domain of science today. To address these challenges, problem solving has become a key skill of the 21^st century. It is generally documented, however, that experts and students differ in terms of their problem-solving skills. Experts in a domain are fluent in the use of different resources to solve domain-specific problems, whereas students stumble when using formulas, devices, or measurement methods. In most cases, the students are not aware if and why the resources are appropriate to solve the given problem. To acquire expertise in a domain, it is necessary to become fluent in the domain-specific resources. This means being aware of various resources and how they can be used reflectively in problem solving. In this study, we investigated how students’ awareness of various domain-specific resources developed within minimally guided, authentic research projects in an undergraduate materials chemistry course that focuses on crystal structures and its characterisation. By monitoring participants’ problem solving through audio-diaries and in-depth qualitative interview data, we examined to what extent their awareness of domain-specific resources developed. We further characterised productive moments of failure and uncertainty during students’ problem-solving processes that influenced their awareness. Thick descriptions of these moments facilitate understanding of how students’ awareness develops in a minimally guided, authentic learning environment and how students can become fluent in a given domain.

KEYWORDS:

• Higher education
• case study
• problem solving
• domain-specific awareness

Acknowledgements

This publication represents a component of the first author’s doctoral (Dr. rer. nat.) thesis in the Department of Chemistry and Biology at the Justus-Liebig-University Giessen, Germany. We would like to thank Dr. Wolfgang Zeier and Felix Badaczewski from the Institute of Physical Chemistry for their support and close cooperation during the development of the research projects. We would also like to thank Martin Steinbach for his assistance during data analysis, as well as all the students who participated.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).