Organic Reaction Mechanism Controversy: Pedagogical Implications for Chemical Education

Abstract

The paper investigated the pedagogical implications of the controversy generated by the nature of reaction mechanism in organic chemistry as to whether it can be proven or not. A conference of a chemist, chemical educator, a graduate chemistry teacher and a graduate assistant was organized. The conference lasted for four weeks of two interactions per week. Each interaction took three hours. Interactions during the conference took a total of 24 hours (8x3). A postgraduate student recorded minutes of each interaction. The minutes of the total interactions served as the source of information for the discourse in the study. While the chemist treated reaction mechanism as a fact supported by experimental evidences, the chemical educator was conscious of reaction mechanism as a theory which can be refuted. The students were not sure of the nature of reaction mechanisms. These were discussed in the study presented below.