Effective Pedagogical Approaches Used in High School Chemistry Education: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

This special issue focuses on the research and development, as well as pedagogical approaches, of the implementation of green and sustainable chemistry practices within the framework of chemistry education, as showcased at ECRICE 2024.The 16th European Conference on Research in Chemical Education took place at NOVA School of Science and Technology, Campus da Caparica, Portugal, between September 5 and 7, 2024.This conference on research in chemical education represented a significant opportunity to share new findings and advancements in the field.Understanding how learners acquire knowledge and how to facilitate and stimulate this process is vital.It is essential to explore several learning environments, embracing new educational tools and innovative approaches that integrate neuroeducation, technology, and artificial intelligence into chemical education to enhance student engagement.However, in the current context, these efforts alone are not sufficient.It is imperative to view these initiatives through the lens of sustainability, particularly in alignment with the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. 1 Therefore, ECRICE 2024s theme was "Chemical Education for Sustainable Development: Empowering Education Communities", Figure 1.The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) proposed by the United Nations and adopted in 2015, emphasise sustainable and environmentally friendly chemistry.Since then, educational systems have begun to integrate these goals, promoting a future that values both human and environmental well-being. 1,2As a result, practical chemistry education increasingly reflects sustainability and green chemistry (GC) principles, integrating them in the curriculum. 2,3Teachers play a crucial role by incorporating green activities, microscale experiments, and ecofriendly reactants, significantly influencing students' sustainable practices and behaviours. [3][4]4][5][6] Laboratory work plays a pivotal role in chemistry education, 7-9 not only because it helps connect theory to practice, boosts motivation, increases students' interest in learning science, supports the acquisition of laboratory skills and techniques, and improves understanding of fundamental procedural and conceptual knowledge (such as concepts, principles, laws, and theories), but also because it also fosters scientific attitudes like rigour, persistence, reasoning, critical thinking, creativity, objectivity, curiosity, responsibility, and cooperation.Engaging in laboratory activities enhances critical thinking and problem-solving abilities, enabling students to apply the scientific method through trial and error.It also improves scientific reasoning by familiarising students with processes of scientific inquiry.Moreover, it can inspire curiosity and support personal growth by promoting social skills through collaborative activities.Ultimately, laboratory work is rooted in active learning: 10-14 it transforms students into active participants by allowing them to experiment, manipulate materials, and directly engage with scientific phenomena.And knowing these, the focus of implementing green (GC) and sustainable chemistry (SC) in schools is rooted in school laboratory practices. 14,15It is important to note that although sustainable chemistry (SC) provides a broader perspective than green chemistry (GC), green chemistry aims to minimise waste, reduce energy consumption, and improve safety in chemical processes to lessen harmful impacts; it mainly focuses on

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In this chapter, we review recent trends in the philosophy of chemistry and its applications in chemical education. Chemistry has maintained quite a peripheral existence in the philosophy of science for a long time, thus evading focused attention and critical analysis. However, since the 1990s an increasing number of books, journals, conferences and associations focused on philosophy of chemistry highlighting the contributions of chemistry to philosophy of science (Bhushan and Rosenfeld, Of minds and molecules: new philosophical perspectives on chemistry. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2000; Hendry, The metaphysics of chemistry. Oxford University Press, 2012; McIntyre and Scerri, Synthese 111(3):211–212, 1997; Scerri and McIntyre, Synthese 111(3):213–232, 1997; Schummer, The philosophy of chemistry: From infancy toward maturity. In: Baird D, Scerri E, McIntyre L (eds) Philosophy of chemistry: synthesis of a new discipline. Springer, Dordrecht, pp 19–39, 2006; Van Brakel, Ambix 57(2):233–234, 2010; Van Brakel, Synthese 111(3):253–282, 1997; Woody, Philosophy of Science 67 (Proceedings):S612–S627, 2000). The uptake of this new domain in the context of chemical education research and practice has been minimal despite some earlier acknowledgment of the potential significance for chemical education (Erduran, Science & Education 10:581–593, 2001; Gilbert et al. Research and development for the future of chemical education. In: Gilbert et al. (eds) Chemical education: towards research-based practice. Kluwer, Dordrecht, pp 391–408, 2003). The special edition of the Science & Education journal on ‘Philosophy, Chemistry and Education: An Introduction’ (Erduran, Science & Education, 2013) is the first collection where the work on the applications of philosophy of chemistry in chemical education has been collated. This chapter will begin with an overview of some of the key and example debates in philosophy of chemistry. These examples will include themes such as reductionism (e.g. Scerri, Journal of Chemical Education 68(2):122–126, 1991) and supervenience (e.g. Papineau, Arguments for supervenience and physical realization. In: Savellos EE, Yalcin U (eds) supervenience: new essays. Cambridge University Press, 1995) as well as aspects of chemical knowledge such as laws (e.g. Christie and Christie, “Laws” and “theories” in chemistry do not obey the rules. In: Bhushan N, Rosenfeld S (eds) Of minds and molecules. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 34–50, 2000), models (e.g. Woody, Science & Education, 2013) and explanations (e.g. Hendry, The chemical bond: structure, energy and explanation. In: Dorato M, Redei M, Suarez M (eds) EPSA: Philosophical issues in the sciences: launch of the European Philosophy of Science Association. Springer, Berlin, pp 117–127, 2010.). Second, the implications of these themes for chemical education research and practice will be explored. The central argument is that understanding of how chemistry is conceptualised and how chemistry is learned, chemical education research has to be informed by the debates about the epistemology and ontology of chemistry. The discussion will be contextualised in the area of nature of science (NOS) that has been one of the highly studied areas of research in science education (Chang et al. Journal of Science Education and Technology, 2010). Contributions of how philosophy of chemistry can contribute to the characterisation of NOS by nuanced perspectives on the nature of chemistry will be discussed. Theoretical perspectives and empirical studies on NOS have tended to focus on domain-general aspects of scientific knowledge with limited understanding of domain-specific ways of thinking. NOS literature can be further developed both theoretically and empirically, thereby contributing more to HPS studies in science education. Third, some applications of philosophy of chemistry in chemical education will be reviewed in more detail. For example, proposed work for secondary chemical education, including the context of the teaching of periodic law through argumentation, will be visited (e.g. Erduran, Foundations of Chemistry 9(3):247–263, 2007). Fourth, the chapter will argue that there is developing potential for reciprocal interplay between philosophy of chemistry and chemical education. While philosophy of chemistry has the potential to influence chemistry education, chemistry education in turn can influences philosophy of chemistry, particularly in relation to empirical foundations of chemical reasoning. The paper will conclude with some recommendations on the future directions of research in chemical education that is informed by philosophy of chemistry.

Development of Pisa 2015 Based Chemical Literacy Assessment Instrument For High School Students

Change Processes and Strategies at the Local Level

Chemistry education research (CER) ranges from understanding the history and philosophy of chemistry, which guides on us how chemistry knowledge was developed, to the developments and application of modern technologies and tools for a more effective teaching of chemistry. CER plays a mediator role in translating recent discoveries in the field of chemistry into content that can be understood by students. Like in many academic disciplines, it is necessary for chemistry educators to pause periodically and take stock of what kind of research we are doing and where chemistry education is going. A content analysis of research papers can guide scholars with a strong indication of the extent to which journal editors and scholars prioritize research in the chemistry education field and whether there have been changes in the subject matters studied and research methods employed over time. This chapter focuses on the development of research in chemistry education in Turkey through a content analysis of 1338 research papers published in peer-reviewed journals and compares it to international research published in high status journals that publish CER. It starts with a brief introduction to the Turkish education system and teaching chemistry as a discipline in Turkey. Attention then moves to the research in chemistry education in the world and Turkey. Content analyses of CER papers published by Turkish chemistry educators are compared with CER published by highly respected international journals. The results indicated that although CER has showed a visible increase in Turkey since 2000 and the number of national and international publications is increased, there are still problems with publishing high quality research papers in respected international journals. The chapter concludes with a discussion on the status and future of CER in Turkey.

Almost everyone who teaches chemistry in the K-12 system (or its foreign equivalents) and almost everyone employed as a faculty member in a chemistry department qualifies as a chemical educator: we are chemists interested in helping others understand chemistry. One way to look at the chemical education community is to divide our activities into a spectrum of three intertwined branches: instruction, practice, and research. The branches intertwine because many of us are active in more than one branch.Instruction is familiar to all of us. Even if we do not engage in instruction, we have been on the receiving end. Instructors use their knowledge to assist their clientele’s learning. It is not difficult to identify the largest group of instructors: we are teachers in K-12 classes or faculty in post-secondary classrooms and teaching laboratories at all levels (from technical schools and two-year colleges to medical and graduate schools). Graduate teaching assistants, who bear a significant part of the responsibility for delivering instruction at many institutions, constitute another group. However, instruction occurs in settings other than the classroom and teaching laboratory. Tutors who staff learning centers are instructors. Research directors who direct the laboratory work of undergraduate and graduate students are instructors. The chemical education component of their activities lies in the transmission of attitudes, skills, and habits of inquiry to their students.Many chemical educators are practitioners. Practitioners coordinate or direct programs and develop the tools and methods used to teach chemistry. The obvious practitioners are directors of general chemistry or directors of teaching laboratories. Others of us include software developers, textbook authors, and those who develop laboratory experiments or lecture demonstrations. Less obvious may be those involved in curriculum development, outreach, and teacher preparation. We should also include institutional staff at the ACS, NSF, and government departments of education in addition to laboratory managers and many other professional staff at post-secondary institutions. Another important and overlooked group are reviewers. Their work goes almost unnoticed, yet a thoughtful review can greatly improve a textbook, laboratory experiment, or journal article.A smaller group of chemical educators do research in chemical education. Those engaged in chemical education research examine what works and why or why not. Some are members of schools of education; others are members of chemistry departments. Chemical education researchers can provide tested, theory-based, or data-based insights and methodologies to the chemical education community. We focus on a variety of basic research questions. How and why do students learn? Why is chemistry difficult, even for many good students? What works to facilitate effective learning

Disaster preparedness and risk reduction are recognized as fundamental actions for creating a safe future and for reducing the severity of losses during disasters. In this context, DRRR education was included in the curriculum of the K-12 Basic Education Curriculum. Innovative use of the problem-based learning (PBL) approach was applied as a pedagogical approach in DRRR subjects in this study. It was used to test how effective is the PBL approach in engaging the respondents to propose and suggests feasible solutions to the identified community hazards. Further, to assess if the academic profile relevant to the basic concept of hazards of the respondents will significantly become more positive before and after exposing the students to the PBL approach. The research utilizes data analysis with a One-Group Pretest Posttest Design. Thirty-one (31) Grade 11 STEM students from Rosario National High School enrolled in the DRRR subject are the participant of this research. The research runs for the entirety of the SY 2018-2019 second semester. Its procedure was divided into three phases; Phase 1: conduct a pre-test without the PBL approach. Phase 2: the development of the learning tasks in DRRR lessons using the PBL approach Phase 3: conduct post-tests after the participants took the learning tasks in DRRR lessons using the PBL approach. The study revealed that students exposed to the PBL approach gain higher grade ratings from satisfactory to outstanding. There is a significant increase in the problem-solving skills of the students at 0.05 after being taught using the PBL approach on concepts of hazards and how to identify them in the community. PBL approach is significantly effective in engaging the respondents to propose and suggests feasible solutions to the identified community hazards. The proposed action plan should be realized to enhance the student’s academic performance in DRRM lessons using the PBL approach. Keywords: disaster risk reduction; PBL (problem-based learning) approach; pedagogy; problem-solving skill

Background StudySeveral meta‐analysis studies have investigated the effects of mobile learning on learning performance. However, limited attention has been paid to pedagogy in mobile learning, making quantitative evidence of the effects of pedagogical approaches on learning performance in mobile learning scarce. Filling this gap can therefore help stakeholders understand which mobile pedagogical approaches might work or not under which learning conditions, hence achieving better learning experience and performance.ObjectivesTo address this gap, this study conducted a meta‐analysis and research synthesis of the effects of integrated pedagogical approaches on students' learning performance in mobile learning. Additionally, this study analysed the field of education, level of education, learning setting, sample size, and mobile device as moderating variables of the effect of pedagogical approaches.MethodsThe software Comprehensive Meta‐Analysis V.3 was used for this meta‐analysis, where Hedges' g was calculated for the effect sizes. Specifically, 70 quantitative studies (N = 5575 participants) were coded and analysed.ResultsThe results indicate that pedagogical approaches in mobile learning have a large effect on students' learning performance (g = 0.93, p < 0.001). The most effective pedagogical approach was project‐based learning (huge effect), while collaborative learning, situated learning and game‐based learning had large effects. Finally, cognitive theory of multimedia learning and inquiry‐based learning had medium effects. The results also indicate that the effect is moderated by the field of education, the level of education, the learning setting, the sample size, and the mobile device. Finally, it is found that study quality might influence the overall effect size.ConclusionsThe findings of this study can be beneficial to both researchers and practitioners as they highlight and discuss which pedagogical approaches could be more effective in mobile learning under specific conditions. Further research, on the other hand, should focus on covering additional moderators of learning performance like mobile device type and screen size which is one of the limitations of this study.

A modern understanding of the cell and its functions has been translated into learning goals for K-12 students by Project 2061's Benchmarks for Science Literacy (American Association for the Advancement of Science [AAAS], 1993 ) and by the National Research Council's National Science Education Standards (NSES) (National Research Council [NRC], 1996 ). Nearly every state has used these national documents to develop their own science standards, so that there is now a fairly broad consensus on what it is that students need to know and be able to do in science generally and in biology more specifically. While this consensus represents an important first step toward improving science education, without curriculum, instruction, and assessments that are well aligned with these goals, teachers will find it extremely difficult to help their students achieve them. Here, we first highlight a few of the key findings regarding cell biology from Project 2061's study of high school textbooks and their alignment with standards. We then describe Project 2061's current efforts to develop new knowledge and tools that educators, researchers, and practitioners can use to help all students become literate in science, mathematics, and technology. Project 2061 is a long-term K–12 education initiative of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Australia is presented as a unique but fertile context in terms of chemistry education research and practice. While focusing on the tertiary sector, the influence and partnerships with secondary education researchers is also recognized. A metareview of publications in key chemistry and science education research journals between 2008-2017 has been analysed to identify the breadth of chemistry education research by Australians as well as concentrations of excellence. It was found that the field is underpinned by strong leaders, mentors and role models, academics representing multiple STEM disciplines engage in publishing their chemistry education-based research. Also, the nature of research is maturing from ontological focused questions to epistemological studies.

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.

Each year, it seems, more divisions devoted to chemical education are created in university chemistry departments around the country. A few universities have even established advanced degree programs in chemical education. But although a need for greater attention to reform of chemical education is widely appreciated, research in the area of chemical education is perhaps not as well understood. That's the reason, says Texas Tech University assistant chemistry professor Patricia A. Metz, that a session was held by the Division of Chemical Education to showcase scholarly activities in chemical education. Metz organized the half-day symposium, which brought speakers from across the country to discuss research efforts currently under way. Metz hopes the symposium will help chemistry faculty members understand and accept research in chemical education as appropriate scholarly activity for a chemistry department. At the symposium, a definition and set of goals for scholarship in chemical education were presente...

Chemistry education and chemical education research are not exempt of the processes of globalization, its potentialities and the obstacles it may bring about. Thus, chemistry educators must rethink chemical education research and practice from this globalized perspective. Effective communication amongst members of the international community is critical in this process and an enhanced understanding of others' contexts (e.g. history, resources, limitations, worldviews) is indispensable to achieve it. This chapter focuses on the development of chemical education and chemical education research, CER, in Costa Rica. It provides a historical perspective and information on the current state of the matter that afford readers the possibility to contrast with their own experiences. This chapter intends to introduce provocative thoughts to nurture international reflection and conversation and to assist readers in broadening their perspectives on chemical education.

Use of comparative research in the study of chemistry education: A systematic analysis of the literature