Heuristic Chemistry-Addition Reactions

• Published in: Chemistry : a European journal Vol. 17; no. 1; pp. 30 - 40
• Main Authors: Graulich, Nicole, Hopf, Henning, Schreiner, Peter R.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Weinheim WILEY-VCH Verlag 03.01.2011; WILEY‐VCH Verlag; Wiley Subscription Services, Inc
• Subjects: addition reactions; Chemical reactions; Chemistry; Education; Heuristic; heuristic chemistry; Learning; Organic chemistry; Strategy; Students; Teaching; teaching chemistry; transformations
• ISSN: 0947-6539; 1521-3765; 1521-3765
• DOI: 10.1002/chem.201002370

Organic chemistry is often considered a difficult subject requiring great effort to achieve expert status. Only once this level has been reached, judging, deciding, and recalling chemical information will be fast and guided by heuristic strategies. These principles, used intuitively, improve the efficiency and speed of problem‐solving and decision‐making procedures. Establishing these strategies in teaching and learning chemistry should significantly help students acquire well‐structured procedural knowledge early in their education. In an attempt to improve conceptual thinking in teaching organic chemistry, in this contribution we develop a heuristic view of addition reactions and propose a new way of perceiving this class of organic reactions. A heuristic model for addition reactions has been developed to enhance the conceptual thinking in understanding and teaching organic chemistry (see picture). This approach concentrates on the basic concept of addition reactions and departs from the traditional functional group viewpoint. The use of recurrent reaction motifs provides the basis for recognizing, predicting, and planning addition reactions.