Relationship between problem finding ability and problem solving ability in chemistry

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between high school students' Problem Finding Ability (PFA) and chemistry problem solving ability. To achieve this purpose, the interrelationship between the results of PFA in ill-structured scientific problem situation and the scores of sham examination in chemistry I of College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) was analyzed. The results of this study turned out to be as follows: There was correlation (r=.346) between the score of PFA test and that of sham examination in chemistry I of the CSAT. And a little correlation (r=.390) between PFA and students' application ability which is one of the sub factors in sham examination of the CSAT. Especially, in the high achievers' group there was high correlation (r=.446) between students' fluency which is one of the sub factors in PFA, and application ability. This implies that the application ability of high achievers has something to do with their PFA for a variety of problems. As for the PFA between high achievers and low achievers, there was no significant difference (t=.830, p=.411).