Students’ Understanding of Electronic Effects in an Introductory Organic Chemistry Course

As students in an introductory organic chemistry course need to master a vast amount of complex material their success depends to a large extent on their ability to generalize. In a typical organic chemistry course a considerable amount of time is devoted to study of role of electronic effects in an electrophilic aromatic substitution. Therefore, it is not surprising that most students acquire a good command of that subject. However, some students learn it “too well” and assume that the same effects operate when a reactant contains an aromatic structure regardless of the reactivity center and the reaction mechanism. A sequence of three laboratory exercises involving electrophilic aromatic substitution, nucleophilic carbonyl addition and nucleophilic carbonyl substitution along with classroom exercises has been designed to address students misconceptions.