Volume 1, Issue 2

The European Union has been facing common issues such as early school leaving and lifelong learning for years. They are main targets that remain on the EU agenda and all good practice examples are welcome. Citizen science is one of the approaches that seems to have great potential to draw a wide group of people to science in a popular way. People can easily become a part of a scientific team and contribute to research that could hardly be carried out by one small team. Many citizen science researchers deal with issues that are attractive for people because of their usefulness or application (gathering ticks, taking photographs of surroundings) and/or because of the accessibility of the data (typical for biological issues). This aspect also supports bridging the gap between citizens-amateurs and scientists-professionals, as well as lifelong learning. Chemistry is a natural science subject that is rarely performed in citizen science, and little research is devoted to the educational aspect of citizen science projects. Therefore, we present here a brief overview of an increasing scientific design that is widely used in natural science, although rarely in chemistry. Citizen science seems to be a potentially useful tool for improving chemistry education.

Despite the tremendous efforts which have been made over the last few years, inquiry-based learning (IBL) has not become an established practice in science education yet. Even if teachers consider IBL an important and valuable approach, they still refrain from implementing it in their own science classes. Research findings suggest that the teachers’ beliefs and attitudes have a crucial influence on their classroom practice. Only if they are compatible with the approach of IBL, the teachers will be willing to implement IBL in their own classes. This article demonstrates how the beliefs and attitudes of three Austrian chemistry teachers changed over the period of a 9-monthly professional development program (PDP). In order to ascertain their beliefs and attitudes regarding IBL previous to and after the PDP, we conducted a group discussion and three individual interviews. The statements from both dates were analyzed using a qualitative content analysis and indicate substantial changes concerning the teachers’ beliefs about the efficacy, capability and practicability of IBL. After participating in the PDP, the teachers took a more positive attitude regarding both IBL in general and its implementation. Considering the findings from this study, we formulate implications for designing PDP at the end.

Chemistry teaching and learning bears some subject-specific challenges. For example, explanations and considerations of chemical phenomena drawing on the macroscopic, the sub-microscopic and the representational level. In this paper, we focus on the topic ‘acids and bases’ where the confusion of these levels leads to numerous misconceptions among learners. One possible source of these problems are textbooks, which can have an important impact on the quality of teaching and learning. To identify scientific and didactical appropriate textbooks for lower secondary classes, we draw on the work of Roseman, J. E., Stern, L. & Koppal, M. (2010), who developed an instrument to analyse textbooks using a conceptual coherence map. To develop our topic-specific instrument, big ideas of the topic were formulated, arranged in a conceptual coherence map, and set in relation with each other. Then we development a coding manual that describes precisely how to apply the different categories while analysing textbooks. The process described is part of a design-based research project with the aim to contribute to better chemistry teaching and learning. We give insight into the process of developing this instrument for analysing chemistry textbooks. Furthermore, it presents some examples for problematic representations from textbooks in the field of ‘acids and bases’.

For more than 20 years the science teachers, the researchers in science education, the educationists and the other pedagogues have been acquainted with the model of educational reconstruction. In this model there are integrated three areas of this scientific interest: the recognition of pupils’ conceptions, the investigation of scientific conceptions with didactics branch approach and the creation of an educational content (Duit, R., Gropengießer, H., & Kattmann, U. (2005). Towards science education research that is relevant for improving practice: The model of educational reconstruction. In H. E. Fischer, (Ed.), The Developing standards in research on science education (pp. 1–9). London: Taylor & Francis; Duit, R., Gropengießer, H., Kattmann, U., Komorek, M., & Parchmann, I. (2012). The model of educational reconstruction – a framework for improving teaching and learning science. In D. Jorde & J. Dillon (Eds.), Science education research and practice in Europe. Cultural perpectives in science education, 5 (pp. 13–37). Rotterdam: Sense Publishers; Kattmann, U., Duit, R., Gropengießer, H., & Komorek, M. (1997). Das Modell der Didaktischen Rekonstruktion – Ein Rahmen für naturwissenschaftsdidaktische Forschung und Entwicklung.Zeitschrift für Didaktik der Naturwissenschaften, 3(3), 3–18). There is required to reconstruct the educational content for learning and teaching purposes. It leads to the educational structuring and to the clarification in scientific field. Therefore, in this contribution there is analysed a formation of the concept chemical reaction from the perspectives of the chemistry textbooks used in the 19 th , the 20 th and the 21 st centuries in Slovakia. These findings could be useful in the process of comparison between scientific and pedagogical knowledge in this branch not only in neighbouring countries, even in the broaden European or worldwide content.

To comply with the United Nations’ (UN) Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities teaching units have to be universally accessible to all students. The Universal Design for Learning (UDL) offers one possible way of creating an inclusive teaching unit that should be accessible to as many students as possible. New technologies and media are very suitable for providing flexible materials and are therefore of particular importance to the UDL. To investigate the effect of a digital multimedia learning environment on students with and without special educational needs (SEN) we developed a learning software according to the UDL for two 90 min courses for the lower secondary chemistry course. We examined the learning environment in inclusive German classrooms with n = 89 students at the age of 13–15, including n = 16 SEN-students. For this, we used a chemistry performance test in form of a multiple-choice test in a pre-post-follow-up-design as well as a test for the attitude of the students towards the learning software. Additionally, we recorded the activities on the screens of selected learners. The chemistry performance concerning chemical reactions significantly increased through the intervention. Moreover, the students gave a positive feedback on the learning software. The results of the study suggest that the digital learning unit is suitable for learning about chemical reactions. The analysis of the videos shows that students with and without SEN use the functions of the software mostly adequate. In this paper first results are presented, further analysis will follow.

Currently, chemistry education solves problems related to the definition of new values in order to improve the quality of education, personal development of the pupils, and problems of the teaching strategies that will stimulate the interest and commitment of the students for the natural sciences. The emphasis is on interactive teaching, using the subject matter in practice with ICT. Therefore, our goal is to create and verify an interactive chemistry course for lower secondary schools based on the characteristics of interactive, ICT-connected education and more interesting presentation of the subject matter. The first stage of our work consisted of an analysis of previous studies to establish the theoretical foundations on which to the base the use of ICT. Next, we have presented some of the developed methodological options, which illustrate the ability to use interactive methods. In the second stage, according to the different interactive chemistry programs and analysis of curriculum of the chemistry subject in the Czech Republic and Kazakhstan, we developed interactive teaching materials for chemistry lessons with interesting embedded content for lower secondary schools. In the next stage, all prepared materials will be verified and eventually adapted into the final form for use in chemistry teaching.

The legal obligation to implement digital tools in teaching and learning at all German schools poses a challenge to all teachers since the majority of teachers feel that they are not well enough prepared to meet the requirements. It is therefore of great importance to professionalize both teaching staff and prospective teachers for implementing digital tools effectively and appropriately. Therefore, within this project we develop and evaluate an innovative university seminar that aims at the professionalization of prospective teachers for digitization in chemistry education by providing the requisite skills. The study is an intervention study that tests the interventions’ effects by using repeated measures. In reference to the TPACK (technological pedagogical content knowledge) model, we explore the potential implications of the seminar to the future teachers’ teaching practices on the levels of self-efficacy, lesson planning and practical implementation. Consequently, this study does not only reflect one important area of teaching practice, but consists of a comprehensive analysis of TPACK knowledge. Additionally, the study also aims to determine potential implications for other teaching programs. The first results of the pilot study show that the seminar participants assess the seminar as very attractive. Moreover, the seminar participation led to a significant positive change regarding the prospective teachers’ attitudes towards the implementation of digital tools in chemistry lessons as well as their TPACK self-efficacy perceptions.

Today, digital media are an integral part of most people’s daily routine. Therefore, tablets, smartphones and the internet have become increasingly important at school, as well. At the same time, digitisation offers great potential for teaching highly heterogeneous learning groups individually and comprehensively. However, the use of digital media at German schools is still in its infancy. In order to create a basis for the successful implementation of digital media in teaching, it is necessary to generate profound knowledge about the effectiveness of digital learning environments regarding heterogeneous learning groups. Within this framework, we develop and evaluate a digital learning environment for lower secondary classrooms (age group 13–14) in this project. The aim of the study is to determine the effects of the use of tablet computers in different teaching phases on the students’ learning outcome. In order to analyse the effectiveness of the tablets in the classroom, we assess the expertise knowledge of the students before and after the teaching unit as well as the students’ attitude towards the teaching unit and towards working with tablet computers. With the help of a screen-capture-software, it is possible to retrace the students’ action steps while working with the tablets. Additionally, the lessons are filmed to compare the work behaviour of the learners with and without tablets. Furthermore, the cognitive abilities and the self-concept of the students are determined. This paper focuses on the development and design of the study, as the evaluation has not yet been completed.

Reasoning skills can be described as abilities to use scientific knowledge to identify and solve problems, and to formulate conclusions based on empirical observations. The European Union promotes the development of reasoning skills as a way to grow knowledgeable and responsible citizens. In a school classroom, the development of reasoning skills can be stimulated by the use of inquiry-based methods. Students’ reasoning skills are frequently measured and compared by many national and international programmes (e.g. PISA). It is obvious that teachers who help students to develop reasoning skills should also have a high level of those skills, however, the teachers who currently work in Central/Eastern European schools have had no opportunity to learn through or even experience inquiry, neither to participate in programmes measuring the level of reasoning skills. In this research, Lawson’s tests were used to measure the level of reasoning skills among science teachers (n = 71) before and after training in using inquiry-based methods. The results showed that reasoning skills are the best developed by physics teachers. Training in using inquiry helps biology and chemistry teachers improve and close the gap between them and physics teachers.