Chemistry Education Research and Practice 

About: Chemistry Education Research and Practice is an academic journal published by Royal Society of Chemistry. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Chemistry education & Teaching method. It has an ISSN identifier of 1756-1108. Over the lifetime, 1097 publications have been published receiving 30911 citations. The journal is also known as: CERP.

Natural bond orbitals and extensions of localized bonding concepts

Abstract: We provide a brief overview of “natural” localized bonding concepts, as implemented in the current natural bond orbital program (NBO 5.0), and describe recent extensions of these concepts to transition metal bonding. [Chem. Educ. Res. Pract. Eur.: 2001, 2, 91-104]

Teaching of chemistry - logical or psychological?

Abstract: Chemistry is regarded as a difficult subject for students. The difficulties may lie in human learning as well as in the intrinsic nature of the subject. Concepts form from our senses by noticing common factors and regularities and by establishing examples and non-examples. This direct concept formation is possible in recognising, for instance, metals or flammable substances, but quite impossible for concepts like ‘element’ or ‘compound’, bonding types, internal crystal structures and family groupings such as alcohols, ketones or carbohydrates. The psychology for the formation of most of chemical concepts is quite different from that of the ‘normal’ world. We have the added complication of operating on and interrelating three levels of thought: the macro and tangible, the sub micro atomic and molecular, and the representational use of symbols and mathematics. It is psychological folly to introduce learners to ideas at all three levels simultaneously. Herein lies the origins of many misconceptions. The trained chemist can keep these three in balance, but not the learner. This paper explores the possibilities, for the curriculum, of a psychological approach in terms of curricular order, the gradual development of concepts, the function of laboratory work and the place of quantitative ideas. Chemical education research has advanced enough to offer pointers to the teacher, the administrator and the publisher of how our subject may be more effectively shared with our students. [Chem. Educ. Res. Pract. Eur.: 2000, 1, 9- 15]

The laboratory in science education: the state of the art

Abstract: For more than a century, laboratory experiences have been purported to promote central science education goals including the enhancement of students' understanding of concepts in science and its applications; scientific practical skills and problem solving abilities; scientific ‘habits of mind’; understanding of how science and scientists work; interest and motivation. Now at the beginning of the 21st century it looks as if the issue regarding learning in and from the science laboratory and the laboratory in the context of teaching and learning chemistry is still relevant regarding research issues as well as developmental and implementation issues. This special CERP issue is an attempt to provide up-to-date reports from several countries around the world. [Chem. Educ. Res. Pract., 2007, 8 (2), 105-107]

The role of laboratory work in university chemistry

Abstract: The place of experimental work in laboratories has always assumed a high profile at all levels of chemical education. This paper seeks to review the main strands of evidence available today and argues that the place of experimental work needs to be reconsidered at higher education levels. There is a need for a clarification of aims and objectives, and these need to be communicated to learners. It argues that higher education needs to be acutely aware of what goes on at school and to build on these skills. Pre-laboratory exercises are strongly supported by the evidence, while there needs to be a radical re-thinking of the use of laboratory manuals, with assessment being explored afresh. In addition, seeing the laboratory experience in the context of what goes on before and after, as well as other learning, will enhance the learning potential of this time. Examples of some ways forward are presented. Overall, it is argued that much more could be gained by the students if the laboratory experience, using similar experiments, was radically re- thought. [Chem. Educ. Res. Pract., 2007, 8 (2), 172-185]

Revisiting the chemistry triplet: drawing upon the nature of chemical knowledge and the psychology of learning to inform chemistry education

Abstract: Much scholarship in chemical education draws upon the model of there being three ‘levels’ at which the teaching and learning of chemistry operates, a notion which is often represented graphically in terms of a triangle with the apices labelled as macroscopic, submicroscopic and symbolic. This model was proposed by Johnstone who argued that chemistry education needs to take into account ideas deriving from psychological research on cognition about how information is processed in learning. Johnstone's model, or the ‘chemistry triplet’, has been widely taken-up in chemistry education, but has also been developed and reconceptualised in diverse ways such that there is no canonical form generally adopted in the community. Three decades on from the introduction of Johnstone's model of the three levels, the present perspective article revisits both the analysis of chemical knowledge itself, and key ideas from the learning sciences that can offer insights into how to best teach the macroscopic, submicroscopic and symbolic aspects of chemical knowledge.