This editorial coincides with my start as Editor for Chemistry Education Research and Practice (CERP). Since the purpose of CERP is to serve the chemistry education community of authors and readers, this editorial describes my reflection on how CERP serves the chemistry education community. CERP provides a ready venue for authors to share chemistry education research (CER) and for researchers and educators to learn from this research. By focusing exclusively on CER, it has served to differentiate CER from more general education research and scholarship in teaching and learning products. As a result, CERP provides clear recognition of CER including to those outside the field of chemistry education. A particular strength of CERP is the number of reviewers who provide constructive feedback within their reviews. This feedback supports authors in advancing their work and serves the readers by improving the quality and relevance of the work that appears in CERP. In closing, possibilities for how CERP may better serve the chemistry education community are raised as an ongoing discussion with the community.
Assessment instruments that generate quantitative data on attributes (cognitive, affective, behavioral, etc. ) of participants are commonly used in the chemistry education community to draw conclusions in research studies or inform practice. Recently, articles and editorials have stressed the importance of providing evidence for the validity and reliability of data collected with these instruments following guidance from the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing. This study examines how quantitative instruments have been used in the journal Chemistry Education Research and Practice ( CERP ) from 2010–2021. Of the 369 unique researcher-developed instruments used during this time frame, the majority only appeared in a single publication (89.7%) and were rarely reused. Cognitive topics were the most common target of the instruments (56.6%). Validity and/or reliability evidence was provided in 64.4% of instances where instruments were used in CERP publications. The most frequently reported evidence was single administration reliability ( e.g. , coefficient alpha), appearing in 47.9% of instances. Only 37.2% of instances reported evidence of both validity and reliability. These results indicate that, as a field, opportunities exist to increase the amount of validity and reliability evidence available for data collected with instruments and that reusing instruments may be one method of increasing this type of data quality evidence for instruments used by the chemistry education community.
Chemistry and chemistry education are closely related, and so is research in the two fields. While, a major goal of education research is the improvement of chemistry education, its impact on the practice of chemistry education has remained relatively low. The vehicles for publishing results of research are international and national journals. Publishing in established peerreviewed international journals is a very hard job. This is a necessity for a young field which needs its academic reputation to be enhanced, and not to be accused as easy research. For the non-native English authors, the language barrier is very serious. On the other hand, concern should cause the fact that even the most prestigious international journals are of a narrow national character. A survey of the subject of practical (laboratory) work in chemistry in two journals (The Journal of Chemical Education and University Chemistry Education), revealed that: while most non-American authors cite in considerable proportion American sources, the American authors cite as a rule only American sources. The Editorial concludes by concentrating on CERAPIE/CERP, and by stressing the need to support, expand, and spread new electronic, freely distributed through the Internet international peerreviewed journals. [Chem. Educ. Res. Pract.: 2003, 4, 3-10]
Chemistry plays an essential role in human life, especially in teaching and learning; however, only a few studies offer an up-to-date and comprehensive overview of chemistry education research (CER) using quantitative bibliometric analysis. For this purpose, the current study explores the trends and status of research in chemistry education over time. A total of 4110 peer-reviewed journal articles were retrieved from the Scopus database. The number of publications in CER demonstrates a significantly increasing pattern from 1895 to 2022. The most frequently cited articles belong to Black and Deci, Hartinger and Dyson, and Baepler et al., Journal of Chemical Education, Chemistry Education Research and Practice, and International Journal of Science Education are the most productive journals. The most prominent institutions are Purdue University, Universitat Bremen, and the University of South Florida. The US, Turkey, and Germany stand out in the number of publications. I. Eilks, V. Talanquer, and M.M. Cooper lead the top three authors with the most publications. The most frequently used author keywords are "first-year undergraduate", "chemistry education", and "upper-division undergraduate". The current study provides a holistic understanding of the development of CER and a reference for future studies in the field.
The study aimed to reveal the research trends of articles related to PBL in chemistry education and to provide insights into the characteristics of the research activities through bibliometric and descriptive content analyses. For bibliometric analysis, a total of 119 articles were accessed from the Web of Science (WoS), and for descriptive content analysis, a total of 30 articles were eliminated from the “Education & Educational Research” category of WoS. In bibliometric analysis, author keywords, words in the abstracts, citation analyses, and co-citation analyses in the articles were analyzed to reveal an overall picture in the related literature. Then, a descriptive content analysis was performed to examine in detail the fields of research, variables, methods, sample groups, data collection tools, data analysis methods, and the results highlighted in the articles. The bibliometric analysis results showed that the most-used keywords were problem-solving/decision making, problem-based learning, undergraduate, inquiry-based/discovery learning, laboratory instruction, and collaborative/cooperative learning. The most used words in the abstracts of the articles were a problem, students, learning, study, course, approach, skill, and chemistry. The most cited authors were Leman Tarhan, Santiago Sandi-Urena, Melanie M. Cooper, and Todd A. Gatlin. The top two journals in the terms of the total number of articles and the most cited were “Journal of Chemical Education” and “Chemistry Education Research and Practice”. The descriptive content analysis results showed that undergraduate chemistry laboratories and chemistry courses were the main learning environments for PBL settings in chemistry education. Undergraduate students were the most frequently preferred sample. The most examined variables in the articles were academic achievement, views about PBL and attitude. Quantitative and qualitative studies were the main research focus, but there was a limited number of mixed studies. Also, interviews, achievement tests, and alternative assessment tools were widely used as data collection tools in the articles.
Analytical chemistry is a sub-branch of chemistry that focuses on the qualitative and quantitative analyses of chemical compositions of substances. Bibliometric analysis is an important tool to identify research gaps and research trends in a particular field. Although some bibliometric studies focusing on analytical chemistry research have been found in the current literature, no study focused on analytical chemistry education research has been found yet. Therefore, in this study, the current state of analytical chemistry education research was attempted to be revealed through a bibliometric analysis of relevant articles in the Web of Science (WoS) database between 2000 and 2024. The data collection process was conducted in accordance with the current PRISMA standards and a total of 742 articles were included in the scope of the research. The data were analyzed using Microsoft Excel, Harzing's Publish or Perish, VOSviewer, and Biblioshiny software. The results showed that the number of publications has increased significantly since 2010, with a peak of 81 articles in 2021 and 1,916 citations in 2023. The United States was the leading country with 1,061 publications, while the National University of Singapore ranked first among the institutions with 24 articles. The most productive journal was the Journal of Chemical Education, with 693 articles published. The article by Elgrishi et al. (2018) was the most influential article; Endler Marcel Borges was the most prolific author, and the keyword “analytical chemistry” was the most frequently used keyword. Overall, these results show that since the year 2010, there has been a growing interest in analytical chemistry education research.
The July 2014 issue of the Chemistry Education Research and Practice is dedicated to physical chemistry education. Major sub-themes are: the role of controversies in PC education, quantum chemistry, chemical thermodynamics (including a review of research on the teaching and learning of thermodynamics) and PC textbooks. Topics covered include: the significance of the origin of PC in connection with the case of electrolyte solution chemistry; the true nature of the hydrogen bond; using the history of science and science education for teaching introductory quantum physics and quantum chemistry; a module for teaching elementary quantum chemistry; undergraduate students’ conceptions of enthalpy, enthalpy change and related concepts; particulate level models of adiabatic and isothermal processes; prospective teachers’ mental models of vapor pressure; an instrument that can be used to identify students’ alternative conceptions regarding thermochemistry concepts; and the organization/sequencing of the major areas of PC in many PC textbooks.
The journal for teachers, researchers and other practitioners in chemistry education. CERP is a diamond open access journal.<br/><br/>Time to first decision: 14 days <br/><br/>Editor-in-chief: Scott Lewis<br/>Chair: Gwen Lawrie
Chemistry Education Research and Practice ( CERP ) publishes both Perspective and Review articles – the difference between these is often queried by authors. The simplest answer is that a Review article is a well-recognised genre that establishes the status of a field based on prior published work; in contrast, a Perspective article can perhaps be regarded as forward thinking, hence will evolve as the research field evolves. Through a survey of previously published Perspective articles in our journal, an eclectic picture is developed in terms of the frequency, purpose and utility of this type of article for our readership. These insights therefore reflect the dynamic nature and the fertility of chemistry education research as a field.
The journal for teachers, researchers and other practitioners in chemistry education. CERP is a diamond open access journal.<br/><br/>Time to first decision: 14 days <br/><br/>Editor-in-chief: Scott Lewis<br/>Chair: Gwen Lawrie
An explicit account of validity considerations within a published paper allows readers to evaluate the evidence that supports the interpretation and use of the data collected within a project. This editorial is meant to provide considerations on how validity has been presented and reviewed among papers submitted to Chemistry Education Research and Practice (CERP) that analyze quantitative data. Authors submitting to CERP are encouraged to make an explicit case for validity and this editorial describes the varying sources of evidence that can be used to organize the evidence presented for validity.
For many years, chemical education research was done by individuals involved in pre-service teacher training and in-service teacher workshops. As a result, it often focused on the problems faced by elementary- and secondary-school students encountering chemistry topics for the first time. Because a large fraction of the students enrolled in chemistry courses at the tertiary level can be found in first-year courses, it is not surprising that as research expanded to studies of college and university students, it began by looking at the experiences of students in introductory courses. Recent years have seen a significant increase in the number of research studies that focus on students in upper-level courses at the undergraduate and graduate level. This is an important development because of the different cognitive and pedagogical challenges that are encountered in ‘advanced’ courses. This special issue of CERP is therefore devoted to studies that have the potential of producing changes in the way upper-level courses are taught that are equivalent to the changes that research on the teaching and learning of chemistry by high-school and introductory level students has had on the way courses for these students are being taught.
Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) pose unique risks to the citizens, stakeholders, visitors, environment and economy of the state of Florida. Florida has been historically subjected to reoccurring blooms of the toxic marine dinoflagellate Karenia brevis (C. C. Davis) G. Hansen &amp; Moestrup since at least first contact with explorers in the 1500’s. However, ongoing immigration of more than 100,000 people year –1 into the state, elevated population densities in coastal areas with attendant rapid, often unregulated development, coastal eutrophication, and climate change impacts (e.g., increasing hurricane severity, increases in water temperature, ocean acidification and sea level rise) has likely increased the occurrence of other HABs, both freshwater and marine, within the state as well as the number of people impacted by these blooms. Currently, over 75 freshwater, estuarine, coastal and marine HAB species are routinely monitored by state agencies. While only blooms of K. brevis , the dinoflagellate Pyrodinium bahamense (Böhm) Steidinger, Tester, and Taylor and the diatom Pseudo-nitzschia spp. have resulted in closure of commercial shellfish beds, other HAB species, including freshwater and marine cyanobacteria, pose either imminent or unknown risks to human, environmental and economic health. HAB related human health risks can be classified into those related to consumption of contaminated shellfish and finfish, consumption of or contact with bloom or toxin contaminated water or exposure to aerosolized HAB toxins. While acute human illnesses resulting from consumption of brevetoxin-, saxitoxin-, and domoic acid-contaminated commercial shellfish have been minimized by effective monitoring and regulation, illnesses due to unregulated toxin exposures, e.g., ciguatoxins and cyanotoxins, are not well documented or understood. Aerosolized HAB toxins potentially impact the largest number of people within Florida. While short-term (days to weeks) impacts of aerosolized brevetoxin exposure are well documented (e.g., decreased respiratory function for at-risk subgroups such as asthmatics), little is known of longer term (&gt;1 month) impacts of exposure or the risks posed by aerosolized cyanotoxin [e.g., microcystin, β- N -methylamino- L -alanine (BMAA)] exposure. Environmental risks of K. brevis blooms are the best studied of Florida HABs and include acute exposure impacts such as significant dies-offs of fish, marine mammals, seabirds and turtles, as well as negative impacts on larval and juvenile stages of many biota. When K. brevis blooms are present, brevetoxins can be found throughout the water column and are widespread in both pelagic and benthic biota. The presence of brevetoxins in living tissue of both fish and marine mammals suggests that food web transfer of these toxins is occurring, resulting in toxin transport beyond the spatial and temporal range of the bloom such that impacts of these toxins may occur in areas not regularly subjected to blooms. Climate change impacts, including temperature effects on cell metabolism, shifting ocean circulation patterns and changes in HAB species range and bloom duration, may exacerbate these dynamics. Secondary HAB related environmental impacts are also possible due to hypoxia and anoxia resulting from elevated bloom biomass and/or the decomposition of HAB related mortalities. Economic risks related to HABs in Florida are diverse and impact multiple stakeholder groups. Direct costs related to human health impacts (e.g., increased hospital visits) as well as recreational and commercial fisheries can be significant, especially with wide-spread sustained HABs. Recreational and tourism-based industries which sustain a significant portion of Florida’s economy are especially vulnerable to both direct (e.g., declines in coastal hotel occupancy rates and restaurant and recreational users) and indirect (e.g., negative publicity impacts, associated job losses) impacts from HABs. While risks related to K. brevis blooms are established, Florida also remains susceptible to future HABs due to large scale freshwater management practices, degrading water quality, potential transport of HABs between freshwater and marine systems and the state’s vulnerability to climate change impacts.
Abstract Challenges to education in rural areas have been reported for a long time, and the respective governments are continuously making efforts to address them. However, the eruption of the Covid-19 pandemic resulted in the total closure of schools and a surge in internet and distance learning. Hence, there is a need to assess the situation periodically to gauge the effectiveness of government efforts in tackling these challenges and understand the impact of the virus outbreak on the education landscape. This study focuses on rural areas of Pakistan and China, utilizing the Situational Analysis Method (SAM). The study findings revealed several key points. Firstly, in both rural Pakistan and China, Covid-19 led to an increase in the number and scope of distance learning activities. However, there is a need for better experiences to effectively manage distance learning for students, parents, and teachers. Moreover, specific issues peculiar to rural China include shortages of relevant facilities such as computers, smartphones, and poor connectivity. In contrast, rural Pakistan faces challenges of unpreparedness and higher teacher workloads. Secondly, since internet connectivity is an essential component for distance learning, rural Pakistan shows higher internet penetration compared to rural areas in China. Nevertheless, internet connection speed in China remains higher and consistent, whether in urban or rural regions. However, both countries struggle with poor internet connection in rural areas due to the lack of enough potential customers. Thirdly, rural education in both countries is plagued by poverty, inadequate funding, and many students having to endure long and hazardous journeys to school. Specific issues in rural China include poor parental care due to migration and a shortage of teachers, while rural Pakistan grapples with limited educational opportunities for children and women, insufficient educational training for teachers, issues of social norms, and attacks on schools by extremist groups.
When designing a study, the sampling method for selecting research participants is an important decision with a host of considerations. When designing a professional development (PD) program with a limited number of spaces, the method of choosing participants from the applicants is also important. When research and professional development are entwined, sets of sampling criteria could conflict. Additionally, in a mixed methods study, such as the one undertaken by the researchers, additional trade-offs exist when considering the many potential methods of sampling and participant selection. In this report, we present a novel solution to the problem of multiple-criterion-focused selection of research and PD participants when the number of applicants to participate outnumbers the availability of resources. By using a weighted ranking system, we were able to incorporate multiple purposive sampling criteria in a simultaneous, rather than sequential, fashion. This allowed us to focus our evaluation of chemistry-specific free-response questions on a narrower pool of finalists and more consistently rate their responses. This multipurposive sampling method and a novel tool developed herein have broad implications for both sampling for chemistry education research and participant selection in professional development.
ABSTRACT Developing students' metacognitive awareness and self‐efficacy is crucial for fostering independent learning and higher‐order thinking skills, especially in research‐related tasks. Despite the widespread recognition of the importance of cultivating higher‐order thinking skills in higher education, there remains a significant gap in our understanding of effective instructional methods for fostering these skills among students. To address this gap, this study examines the impact of instructional practices on undergraduate students' metacognitive awareness and self‐efficacy in research question formulation—a fundamental skill in academic inquiry. Using a pretest/posttest design, 291 students from two colleges participated in courses where active and passive instructional methods served as the intervention. Our analysis reveals that active instructional methods were associated with marked improvements in self‐efficacy. The study provides empirical evidence of the effectiveness of active, student‐centred pedagogies in enhancing cognitive and self‐regulatory capacities. These findings offer educators practical guidance for designing instructional interventions that cultivate critical thinking and research skills, ultimately advancing student learning and success.
High Resolution Image Download MS PowerPoint Slide Metaphors play a central role in our language. Likewise, they are ubiquitous in the language related to imperceptible concepts including many chemical concepts. The present systematic review investigates what metaphorical mappings chemistry education research has examined. Specifically, we distinguish between instructional analogies designed for learning and domain-inherent metaphors present in chemical discourse. We pose the research questions: (i) what types of metaphorical mappings are present in chemistry education research and (ii) what the main findings of this research are. We find that instructional analogies are the focus of most research on metaphorical mappings with a special emphasis on two target concepts: atomic structure and chemical reactivity. Most analogies aimed to either make these concepts more tangible or to relate them to the specific lived experience of the students. Research on domain-inherent metaphors is limited to the analysis of conceptual metaphors that experts or students employ during problem-solving and textbook analyses, all related to entropy. We conclude that the source domain needs to be accessible to the learner and that they need to be aware of the limitations. One way to ensure that is by introducing multiple analogies. However, given the gaps we uncovered in this review, we recommend that future research should focus on a more comprehensive analysis of metaphorical mappings inherent to chemical discourse and their impact on learning processes.
This study is a pioneer bibliometric study about investigating the argumentation studies related to chemistry topics. While bibliometric analysis exists to some extent for analyzing argumentation in education, further research focusing on argumentation in chemistry topics is needed to close the gap in an educational context. The Scopus database was selected to trace the articles published in journals between the years 2006 to 2024. Following the eligibility process, the study was conducted with 94 articles. To reveal the publications and citation trends, performance analysis was conducted. Bibliographic mapping was utilized to understand the conceptual, intellectual, and social structures of the data. In addition to demonstrating the most prolific articles, journals, authors, and countries, the reasons behind their success were investigated. Thus, the current study could help the researchers to determine the research trends. They will also gain valuable insight into which journals should be chosen to publish or which countries are more appropriate to apply for collaborations for projects like Erasmus+. Finally, the results reveal that argumentation studies have great potential in chemistry education.
This study provides an overview of the didactic focus areas in educational research in biology, chemistry and physics, seeking to identify the focus areas that are investigated frequently and those that have been studied rarely or not at all. We applied the didactic focus-based categorization analysis method (DFCM), which is based on an extension of the didactic triangle. As the data set, we used 250 papers published in the Nordic Studies in Science Education (NorDiNa) between 2005 and 2013, and the European Science Education Research Association (ESERA) 2013 conference proceedings covering education at upper secondary and tertiary levels. The results show that the teacher’s pedagogical actions and the student–content relationship were the most frequently studied aspects. On the other hand, teachers’ reflections on the students’ perceptions and attitudes about goals and content, and teachers’ conceptions of the students’ actions towards achieving the goals were studied least. Irrespective of the publication forum, the distributions of foci to different categories were quite similar. Our historical analysis completes the recent studies in the field as it is based on the theory driven categorization system instead of the data driven approaches used by the previous researchers. Moreover, our further observations on more recent publications suggest that no significant changes have taken place, and therefore wider discussion about the scope and the coverage of the research in science education is needed.
The aim of this article is to examine research on inquiry-based chemistry education in primary and secondary schools to discuss how it is addressed in the research literature. A systematic review was conducted, including 102 articles published between 2000 and 2020. Through inductive analyses, the articles were categorised into four groups: (1) articles testing specific teaching approaches or models, (2) articles testing specific learning environments, (3) articles reporting on teachers and (4) additional relevant studies. Within each group, the articles were further categorised into five scientific domains (i.e. conceptual, epistemic, social, procedural and affective) and two categories: classroom practice and other. The experimental studies were also given a typology according to the quality of the methods applied. Overall, the research has been conducted with varied foci and it generally reports positive learning outcomes. However, the main emphasis is on the conceptual and affective domains, with fewer studies focusing on the epistemic domain. Finally, when it comes to methodology, the reviewed articles included many quantitative studies, often with few respondents and of varied quality. Thus, there is a need for more studies with larger numbers of participants, longer durations, more purposeful sampling and with focus on the epistemic and social domains.