Chapter 2: Supporting Spatial Thinking in Organic Chemistry Through Augmented Reality—An Explorative Interview Study

In this chapter, we present an interview study in which chemistry students complete tasks involving stereochemistry and pericyclic reactions. While one group is supported by an Augmented Reality (AR) learning tool, the other group works on the same tasks without this support. During follow-up interviews, we asked students to describe their reasoning for finding a solution. In this way, we are trying to find out whether the use of the AR tool leads to a higher degree of students incorporating spatial aspects into their explanations. The field of organic chemistry offers itself here as spatial skills, such as mental rotation, are central to developing a conceptual understanding. In previous research, the use of AR has supported learners in learning abstract topic specific concepts, in spatial thinking as well as in dealing with the huge variety of organic chemistry representations. In the study, learners who used our AR app tend to be able to involve spatial aspects in their reasoning more often when compared to learners without AR support.