Chemistry Education

This study focused on determining the elements of mental models of atomic structure and views on visual representations of models of atomic structure in two sub-cohorts of student teachers studying at a university in Turkey. In total, 141 student teachers participated in this study. In the first cohort, the focus was on 73 freshman science student teachers' drawings of mental models of atomic structure. The analysis showed a wide variety of individual aspects in the students' minds when asked to sketch the structure of atoms. The majority of students preferred to draw two-dimensional structures, neglecting the atom's space-filling character. Concerning the details of atomic structure, the majority of students emphasized only the most essential components of atoms, namely protons, neutrons, and electrons. It was quickly recognizable that these elements were arranged according to different analogies or representations of historical models, particularly related to Bohr's atomic theory and different representations thereof. Overall, the different visual representations of atomic models the students see in school, almost exclusively serve as the basis for their ideas about atomic structure. Current atomic theory, like quantum mechanical models, are generally not used when students are asked for a "contemporary" model of atoms. Rather it seems that concreteness and functionality are the primary factors leading to the selection of an atomic model when requested. This study is supplemented by data collected from the second cohort of 68 prospective teachers consisting of a diverse group of students ranging from freshman to senior level. The students in this cohort were asked for their preferred illustrations of atoms in textbooks. Open-ended questions about atoms led to further insights. The analysis of the prospective teachers' drawings indicated that a more careful approach to teaching is necessary to clarify the relationships between different models of atomic structure and to allow students to understand what an appropriate and contemporary understanding of atomic structure should encompass.

Three academic years have been considered for the evaluation of the impact of an online tutoring course of general and inorganic chemistry for freshmen students of the University of Camerino (Italy). The online material mainly consists of video tutorials, other open source web tools and multi-choice self-assessment exercises. During the academic year 2016-2017, the e-Learning course was not available yet, but then the online course was first implemented (2017/18) and fully adopted (2018/2019).The online tutoring support was activated alongside a traditional general chemistry course, adopting a blended mode, with the aims of: (i) homogenizing freshmen's chemistry knowledge; (ii) fostering the most appropriate method of study in a multi access modality; (iii) implementing the Johnstone's three levels' knowledge and (iv) increasing students' self-confidence, by the means of a self-evaluation training process. Differently from previous studies, the online course herein aimed mainly to develop a correct method of study of chemistry topics, with a punctual description of what-and-how to do. The results, i.e. the exam's scores, the time spent in the platform, and the successful percentage of students per year, have been collected and analysed through qualitative and quantitative methods. Apart a general satisfaction of the students perceived by the answers to a survey questionnaire, the analysis of the data shows an increase of 11 % of students passing the final exam within three exam sessions together with an improvement and a positive correlation between the time spent on the platform and the mid-term scores achieved.

This monograph outlines and enframes the concept and the outputs of a four-year research in didactics for the subjects of biology, geography, and chemistry. This project has been supported by the Grant Agency of the Czech Republic (P407/10/0514). Primary attention has been devoted to the observation of skills in the relevant subjects displayed by students at primary and secondary schools in Czechia. The selection of and approach to the research topic is a reaction to the low level of success of the principal goals of the curricular reform of general science education in Czechia.
Based on a multi-level analysis of skills on the levels of the intended, realised, and achieved curriculum, the main purpose of this project was to propose a comprehensive system of skills which students should master at the end of the 5th and 9th year of elementary school (primary and lower secondary level of education) and the 4th year of gymnasium (upper secondary education). There was a strong effort to fulfil component research goals with the aid of identical approaches and methods in order to allow a comparability of results across all of the analysed subjects. The research design is based on the principle of mutually interconnected research and the creation of a multi-level curriculum. It is a model which represents the various forms of the curriculum in a manner which makes it easier to study via either qualitative or quantitative methods.
In the initial phase, an entirely new structure of skills has been proposed for the given subjects, which evolves according to the students’ age, from the first and second elementary school level all the way to the level of gymnasiums. The principle of information selection and sorting (a general problem solving cycle) was chosen in order to correspond to the inquiry based learning currently preferred in modern science education. For the relevant student age categories in all three subjects, the required skills have been structured into four or five skill sets: questions in natural science, information gathering from various sources (text, maps, tables, graphs, figures, diagrams, etc.), information organization, evaluation of outputs, formation of conclusions. In the next phase, the proposed overview of skills was subjected to three surveys (one for each subject) addressed to teachers at the 1st and 2nd elementary school levels and at the gymnasiums, as well as to university pedagogues. The analysis of their responses represents one of the foundations for the correction of the first draft of the skill system proposal and allows for an observation of disparities in opinion by the pedagogues at different levels of the educational system.
The third phase of the project consisted in the testing of partial skills from the aforementioned skillsets on students aged 10−11, and (separately for each subject area) 14−15 and 17−18 years, at both the 2nd level of elementary school (lower secondary level) and at gymnasiums. Simultaneously, we have created a survey for teachers and students, in order to successfully put the students’ test results into context. The outputs of structured interviews with 27 randomly selected teachers with varying approbations and lengths of experience also formed an important source of information used for an adjustment of our original proposals.
The structure and content of the monograph corresponds with the phases of the research project. The first two chapters have an introductory character and frame the topic of skills in its wider context. The following sections then present the outputs of the individual research phases, divided by subjects. The concluding seventh chapter compares and discusses the acquired results for biology, geography, and chemistry. Tests and surveys created and used as part of the project are available in the appendix. 
The comparison of results across disciplines, conducted during the final stage, allows for a deeper insight into the formation and structuring of subject-relevant skills, as well as into the process of their implementation. We have selected several findings from this part of the research. From the comparison of the opinions of teachers from various levels of the educational system, analysed through the Kruskal-Wallis median test, and the Analysis of variance (ANOVA), it can be concluded that:
In principle, the newly proposed structure of skills in biology, geography and chemistry is accepted by teachers from all levels of the education system. This agreement, however, is very rough, since the internal heterogeneity of the observed items is considerable and the nature of the compared disciplines (subjects) is rather different. The results primarily indicate that there is a broad consensus among the teachers of biology, geography and chemistry in terms of the research-based attitude as a whole, while not so much on the specific skills representing the given categories. The fact that each respondent considered the specific skills first and the outputs were subsequently aggregated into “macro-categories” related to research effort results in considerable discrepancies between the opinions voiced by academics and those held by teachers in primary and secondary schools, as well as differences between the individual disciplines. Geographers approached as part of the survey show the highest level of heterogeneity in their opinions. The explanation to this can likely be found in the complex nature of this scientific discipline when compared to the “purely natural scientific” disciplines of chemistry and biology. This fact also increases the heterogeneity of categories which include both natural-scientific and social-scientific skills. This is naturally also reflected in the diversity of opinions. This could lead to a presumption that biology and chemistry have a much closer relationship in terms of their scientific character; however occasional statistically significant variation in opinions between teachers of chemistry and biology reveals that this assertion is far from straightforward.
The proposed skills from all four main skillsets are mostly accepted by both practicing pedagogues and academics of all disciplines. Certain categories, however, show differences in the preferences across the separate levels of the educational system, which indicates a need to adjust the expectation on the developed skills to the relevant educational stage.
The results of the testing of students of various ages demonstrated that their level of internalization of the assessed skills is relatively good. Nevertheless, there appear to be discrepancies between the individual skillsets. The skillset concerned with the asking of scientific question comes off as the least developed. The ability to form conclusion, on the other hand, emerges as the strongest. Further research is necessary in this direction in order to determine the level of achievement of all partial skills in the individual skillsets.
Several obstacles to more successful implementation of the proposed structure of skills emerge from the comparison of the testimonies of the 27 interviewed teachers. These include, for example, a certain barrier in communication through an unclear definition of skills or approach to teaching, when the skills apply to teachers and not students. It also appears that one of the deciding factors in the weak presence of the topic of skills in education is the relative difficulty in the assessment of skills, when compared with the assessment of knowledge.

Educational set of ions (ESI) is a card game that can be played with a group of 4. The reason why this game is designed is teaching names and formulas of anions and cations that would form a basis to write and term chemical formulas of the compounds which it is one of the most important subjects of chemistry. This game is prepared for students who study in different grades of education considering the subject on chemical compounds involving anion and cation teaching within the scope of chemistry lesson at high school and university. The game is discusses in 3 steps and these are " contents of the game set, playing the game and rules, and evaluation of the game results ". Pilot scheme conducted in development step of the game was performed with 49 students in total who studied in Science Teaching, Chemical Engineering, Food Engineering, Pharmacy and took lesson of General Chemistry. As a result of the pilot scheme, ESI was put into final form by making arrangements as regards decreasing amount of students in the group, having students sitting in a round, designing answer sheets as reusable in press printed to prevent paper wastage and playing the game by gathering the cards couldn't be written by students.