Investigating Students' Difficulties and Approaches to Solving Buffer Related Problems

The subject of buffer solutions in chemistry is a challenging concept for students to learn due to its abstract nature. The difficulties that students face in learning about buffer solutions can lead to poor performance and alternative conceptions about the topic. The development of successful conceptual understanding to solve buffer solution problems requires that students have factual knowledge, procedural knowledge, and conceptual knowledge about the topic. This research project of the City College of New York (a minority-serving, public, urban, commuter institution) investigates difficulties that students experience in learning about buffer solutions and approaches that they rely on to solve buffer-related problems. The research method employed a survey comprised of a Likert-type and openended questions was used to assess the understanding of 102 participants. The research results indicate that the principal barrier to learning about buffer solutions is students' dependence on formulaic problem solving and calculator use instead of reliance on conceptual understanding. Furthermore, students face difficulties memorizing a significant number of complicated formulas and equations necessary to solving buffer problems. The dominance of student strategies based on plug and chug problem solving likely hinders the development of conceptual understanding. We recommend that instructors need to be familiar with and address difficulties and alternative conceptions students have about buffer solutions.