ABSTRACT
In the context of higher education, the development of students’ problem-solving skills in science continues to be an area of much ongoing research. Effective teaching of problem solving requires the adoption of process-based approaches that reveal to students the ways in which experts solve problems, as well as the coaching of students in higher-order skills that lead them away from a preoccupation with just finding a solution and toward building up a repertoire of problem-solving strategies. It is suggested that science educators need to model problem-solving explicitly by thinking aloud and demonstrating the skills we seek to develop in our students. To do this, teachers need to become more aware of the strategies and thought processes that are applied in problem solving in chemistry. Only then can teachers become colearners and share expertise with students, by demonstrating and modeling problem-solving strategies.
