The aims of this study were to investigate the level of cognitive development of Afro‐American students enrolled in general chemistry courses at the college level and to determine the strategies used by both successful and unsuccessful Afro‐American students in solving specific types of stoichiometric problems. It was found that the choice of a strategy is not significantly related to cognitive development of the student in specific types of stoichiometric problems. However, the following trend was noted: Students who are formal‐operational in thought are more likely to be successful when solving mole‐volume problems and complex mole‐mole problems than are their concrete‐operational counterparts. Additionally, a systematic strategy proved to be successful for the students, regardless of the cognitive development, when balancing simple and complex chemical equations. Also, algorithmic/reasoning strategies were needed to solve the mole‐volume problem. A higher level of cognitive development and reasoning may be crucial factors in solving the more sophisticated types of problems in stoichiometry.
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Atwater et al. (1990) studied this question.