This paper discusses a project of Participatory Action Research (PAR) on lower secondary chemistry education. In this ongoing project, practicing teachers and university researchers in chemical education jointly carry out projects for developing and evaluating new lesson plans. The focus of the PAR group is to develop teaching/learning activities…

This study focused on inquiring into undergraduate chemistry professors' efforts in North America to increase student motivation and interest in the subject and the feasibility of methods that connect students to real world applications and societal issues related to chemistry. A survey was distributed to chemistry instructors at post-secondary…

This study analyzed representations of practical work in 10th grade chemistry textbooks and associated experimental workbooks from different Chinese communities. In the field of textbook research, science education textbooks research is unbalanced between regions. In the case of chemistry textbooks analysis within the Chinese context, textbook…

This study explores the views of Indonesian junior high school pre-service science teachers (PSTs) towards teaching based on socio-scientific issues (SSIs). Questionnaires were analyzed qualitatively and descriptively. The PSTs (N=62) acknowledged that student competencies ranging from personal to socially relevant skills as well as character…

Practical work is an essential component of science education. However, insufficient approaches towards practical work can limit the potential it has for promoting both students' motivation and situational interest. One suggestion to solve this problem is to use alternative forms of lab instruction which are both motivating and easy to comprehend.…

Internet forums are interactive, question-answer-based information resources in the Internet. Users can post questions and others can answer from any place in the world and at any time. Teachers can use Internet forums to find answers on how and what to teach, e.g. science; students find or ask for information for school topics or homework…

Up until now, very few models conceptualizing students' competence in evaluation, argumentation and discourse in the context of science education have been proposed. Most suggestions for analyzing this particular competence in students are normative and the empirical support for them remains weak. The problem becomes even more severe when such…

Sustainable development is a central concern of today's politics across the world. Different political agendas have been developed to promote sustainability and make it a political goal worldwide. As stated in Agenda 21, the political debate seems to agree that education has to play a key role in achieving sustainability. But practices focusing on…

This paper presents an exploratory study of Jordanian chemistry student teachers' and experienced teachers' beliefs about teaching and learning. Different instruments were used, focusing on different aspects of teaching and learning. The first instrument is based on teachers' and students' drawings of teaching situations. It includes open…

This paper describes a three-year curriculum innovation project on teaching about climate change. The innovation for this study focused on a socio-critical approach towards teaching climate change in four different teaching domains (biology, chemistry, physics and politics). The teaching itself explicitly aimed at general educational objectives,…

This paper describes the development of different lesson plans dealing with authentic and controversial socio-scientific issues in the framework of climate change. These lesson plans orient themselves along the socio-critical, problem-oriented approach to science teaching. They deal with the use of bioethanol as an alternative fuel and with the…

This paper revisits the discussion about the objectives of scientific literacy-oriented chemistry teaching, its connection to the German concept of "Allgemeinbildung", and the debate of "science through education" vs. "education through science". About 10 years ago the sociocritical and problem-oriented approach to…