scholarly journals Implementing innovations in chemistry learning and sustainability education in a non-formal student laboratory context

2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 449-461 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicole Garner ◽  
Antje Siol ◽  
Johannes Huwer ◽  
Rolf Hellman Rolf Hempelmann ◽  
Ingo Eilks
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Science Education ◽  
Green Chemistry ◽  
Learning Environments ◽  
Chemistry Education ◽  
Formal Education ◽  
Education For Sustainability ◽  
Formal Learning ◽  
Curriculum Innovation ◽  
Secondary Chemistry

Informal and non-formal science education became major trends in many countries in recent years. Non-formal learning was suggested to help closing gaps in science education, e.g. by providing students an alternative environment to experience practical work. Non-formal education was also suggested to offer a chance for curriculum innovations and teacher continuous professional development. One potential field might be Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). Several perspective papers in recent years described that secondary chemistry education is still lacking in implementing education for sustainability and learning about green chemistry. This article describes the project “Sustainability and chemistry in non-formal student laboratories” that was initiated to develop non-formal learning environments to help implementation of ESD and learning about green chemistry. This article presents the goals and structure of the project, including an example taken from practical experience and selected findings from implementing the proposed non-formal learning environments in secondary chemistry classrooms. Impacts on teachers’ professional development and curriculum innovation are also addressed. Full text

The potential of the non-formal educational sector for supporting chemistry learning and sustainability education for all students – a joint perspective from two cases in Finland and Germany

2017 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fiona Affeldt ◽  
Sakari Tolppanen ◽  
Maija Aksela ◽  
Ingo Eilks
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Literacy ◽  
Chemistry Education ◽  
Formal Education ◽  
Sustainability Education ◽  
Education For Sustainability ◽  
Formal Learning ◽  
Formal Sector ◽  
School Students ◽  
Formal Curriculum ◽  
Chemistry Learning

Non-formal education has been suggested as becoming more and more important in the last decades. As the aims of non-formal education are broad and diverse, a large variety of non-formal learning activities is available. One of the emerging fields in many countries, among them Finland and Germany, has been the establishment of non-formal laboratory learning environments. These laboratories were established in universities and research institutes to aim at enriching opportunities for primary and secondary school students to do more and more intense practical work,e.g.in chemistry. The primary rationale of these laboratories, in the beginning, was mainly to raise students’ interest in the fields of science and engineering, possibly inspiring them to pursue a career in these fields. However, recently the movement has started offering more programs aiming at all learners, but especially those students who are sometimes neglected in traditional science education in the formal sector. A focus on all learners is suggested to help raise students’ level of scientific literacy when connecting practical science learning with the societal and environmental perspectives of science. Chemistry learning connected to sustainability issues offers many contemporary topics that are often not yet part of the chemistry formal curriculum but can easily form contexts for non-formal learning. Because of its flexible character, non-formal education can help implementing aspects of sustainability into chemistry education and also can take a gander at the growing heterogeneity of today's students. This paper derives a joint perspective from two non-formal chemistry education initiatives from Finland and Germany focusing education for sustainability for both talented and educationally disadvantaged students in the foreground of a more general perspective on non-formal and sustainability education in chemistry.

Education for sustainable development in chemistry – challenges, possibilities and pedagogical models in Finland and elsewhere

2014 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 488-500 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. K. Juntunen ◽  
M. K. Aksela
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Science Education ◽  
Green Chemistry ◽  
Chemistry Education ◽  
Sustainability Science ◽  
Education For Sustainable Development ◽  
Chemistry Teachers ◽  
Current State ◽  
Pedagogical Models ◽  
Pedagogical Frameworks

This article analyses Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in chemistry by reviewing existing challenges and future possibilities on the levels of the teacher and the student. Pedagogical frameworks that are found eligible in practice are reviewed. Lesson themes that are suitable for implementing socio-scientific issues (SSI) related to ESD into basic chemistry education at schools are discussed. Based on this analysis, three new demonstrative pedagogical models for ESD in chemistry are presented to help guide the work of teachers. The models draw on an interdisciplinary reading of research in the field of SSI-based science education, sustainability science, green chemistry and environmental education. The current state of ESD in Finnish chemistry education is used as an example case throughout the article. Two tasks where future development is required were recognised. The first task concerns supporting chemistry teachers in overcoming the challenges with SSI and ESD they face in their work. The second task is to ensure that students are more often provided with more relevant and flexible chemistry content and studying methods.

scholarly journals The Press as a Resource for Promoting Sustainability Competencies in Teacher Training: The Case of SDG 7

2022 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 857
Author(s):  
Raquel Chuliá-Jordán ◽  
Amparo Vilches Peña ◽  
María Calero Llinares
Keyword(s):  
Science Education ◽  
Teacher Training ◽  
Formal Education ◽  
Master's Degree ◽  
Degree Program ◽  
Education For Sustainability ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
Master's Degree Program ◽  
The Press ◽  
Master’S Degree

Given the seriousness of the socio-environmental situation we are facing, this study aims to contribute to the involvement of teachers in education for sustainability through the use of non-formal education, particularly the press. The main objectives of the present study are to analyse the use of the press in science education, as well as the design, implementation and evaluation of tools aimed at teachers and trainee researchers in order to encourage and promote attention to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and more specifically SDG 7 (clean and affordable energy for all) in science education. The proposals are carried out using a constructivist methodology in sessions structured in small collaborative groups. The initial results show that attention to the press is still insufficient, but that, nevertheless, the strategies designed contribute to raising awareness of the importance of SDG 7 and to the classroom treatment of the energy issue among the participants in the study who attend a Master’s degree program in secondary education teacher training (specialising in physics and chemistry) and a Master’s degree program in research in specific didactics (specialising in experimental sciences).

Increasing student motivation and the perception of chemistry's relevance in the classroom by learning about tattooing from a chemical and societal view

2014 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 156-167 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marc Stuckey ◽  
Ingo Eilks
Keyword(s):  
Science Education ◽  
Chemistry Education ◽  
Lesson Plan ◽  
Background Information ◽  
Participatory Action ◽  
Chemistry Teaching ◽  
Secondary Chemistry ◽  
Chemistry Learning ◽  
Tattoo Inks ◽  
Selection Of

This paper presents a study on tattooing as a topic for chemistry education. The selection of the topic was inspired by a newly suggested framework, which focuses on the question of relevance of science education. The aim of this case was to get evidence on how topics selected based on the suggested model of relevance of science education affect learners' overall motivation and perception of chemistry learning. For the purpose of the study a lesson plan was cyclically developed and tested within a project of Participatory Action Research. The lesson plan focuses both the chemistry behind tattoo inks and the societal perspectives surrounding tattoos. The study description first includes some background information about tattooing and tattoo inks. It then continues with a description of the lesson plan and ends with reporting experiences and findings taken from lesson plan evaluations at the lower secondary chemistry teaching level (age 14–15). The topic and lesson plan proved themselves to be very motivating for students. Indicators that this lesson plan can potentially contribute to positive changes in students' perceptions of learning chemistry were observed. Implications arising from this case are also discussed.

Controversies and Concurrence in Science Education

2008 ◽  
pp. 14-29
Author(s):  
Kevin F. Downing ◽  
Jennifer K. Holtz
Keyword(s):  
Science Education ◽  
Learning Environments ◽  
Scientific Reasoning ◽  
Formal Education ◽  
Ways Of Knowing ◽  
Learning Theories ◽  
Professional Attitudes ◽  
Social Theories ◽  
Science Wars ◽  
Science Community

The practical application of theory, or praxis, in science education is arguably less straightforward today than it has been in preceding generations. While formal education and learning theories have been promulgated for close to 100 years, the changing disposition and balance of academia, and the consequent dissemination of questionable and unverifiable social theories, have led to a more ambiguous discussion and application of au courant learning theories to science education. Much of what the authors consider the detrimental entanglement in academia of definitions and educational theories about science occurs at the confluence of different professional attitudes and motivation. Scientists are generally complacent in terms of championing and defending their own core philosophy and epistemology, and a scientist’s professional rewards and efforts rarely consist of debunking critics in the so-called other ‘ways of knowing’ (see the Science Wars website and the Sokal Affair for a droll exception at http://members.tripod.com/ScienceWars/). The defense of scientific reasoning is not what scientists focus on by training; thus, this is an area that almost certainly needs more systematic attention and treatment in science curricula. By contrast, science’s detractors in the humanities, social sciences and even education, find professional incentive and marketable topic in assailing the science colossus. Most notably, postmodernism with its socially relativistic and radical constructivist theories, replete with the denial of objective truth, have attempted to undermine science, or as Fishman (1996) noted, are attempting to put science on an “indefinite furlough” (p. 95). Like it or not, the science community is at war with nihilistic ideologies and one of the battle grounds is pedagogy, a deliberation that extends to online science learning environments.

scholarly journals Resource Utility for Effective Science Education in Nigeria: The Case of Biology

2015 ◽  
Vol 53 ◽  
pp. 45-51
Author(s):  
Jacinta A. Opara
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Science Education ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
School Science ◽  
Curriculum Innovation ◽  
Knowledge And Skills ◽  
Use Of Resources ◽  
Effective Science ◽  
Education And Society ◽  
Effective Teaching And Learning

Resource utilization, curriculum innovation and professional development courses are integral to improve educational practices as they empower teachers with knowledge and skills required for integrating education and society. Such moves and actions need to be guided with research. The education practices in Nigeria need to be sound and grounded. This paper is concerned with the importance of the use of resources for effective understanding of school science with special reference to biology. It identified necessary resources, constraints and how to select and use resources for effective teaching and learning of biology. The selection and utilization of any resources depends on the specific features of a particular topic. Therefore, different sets of resources and strategies are needed to teach different topics.

scholarly journals Occupational orientation in chemistry-based learning environments

2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 165-174
Author(s):  
Michael Albertus ◽  
Claus Bolte
Keyword(s):  
Science Education ◽  
Young People ◽  
Career Choice ◽  
Learning Environments ◽  
Chemistry Education ◽  
Choice Model ◽  
Learning Materials ◽  
Specific Learning

The research presented in this paper describes the German project “Career and Science Navigator (CSN)”. This project ties in with previous studies, which indicate that it is necessary to include occupational orientation more strongly into science education. For this purpose, the CSN project developed some specific learning materials and learning environments. These learning environments were implemented into practice and then evaluated with the help of a questionnaire based on a career choice model, which has proven useful in earlier research. The CSN intervention was able to bridge the gap between chemistry education and the area of occupational orientation. It thus contributes to supporting young people in finding a meaningful perspective for their lives. Additionally the CSN conception offers a way to make science lessons more attractive to young people by directly referring to the students’ everyday and future life.

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