Chemistry Education Research and Practice最新文献

Graphs play a central role in chemistry education, serving as powerful tools for visualizing abstract concepts. However, their high information density and abstract nature can overwhelm students, often resulting in learning difficulties. Developing graph competence is therefore essential. While research on graph use and comprehension is well established in science education, investigations specific to chemistry remain limited. This study addresses this gap by systematically analyzing the use of graphs in eight German middle and secondary school chemistry textbooks, identifying and examining 3550 visual representations to provide a more precise understanding of graph use in chemistry and its implications for learning and teaching. The analysis quantified and compared the prevalence and distribution of graphs and realistic pictures across content areas and educational levels. Focusing on line graphs, we also analyzed how graph-related textbook tasks engage students in cognitive processes at varying levels of complexity. Our findings reveal not only the variety of graph types in chemistry textbooks but also distinct differences in the cognitive demands placed on students across educational levels and school types. Furthermore, they highlight domain-specific characteristics of graphs in chemistry and suggest challenges that students are likely to encounter when engaging with them. By identifying these patterns, the study extends previous research on graph use through its focused chemistry education context and provides actionable insights for improving textbook design and instructional strategies. Finally, this work lays the groundwork for future research into students’ actual graph competence and graph-related difficulties.

Emotional Intelligence (EI) has gained increasing attention across education research; however, its role within chemistry education remains conceptually diffuse and methodologically fragmented. This systematic review examines how EI and related affective constructs have been conceptualised, enacted, and investigated within chemistry education research between 2015 and 2025. Following PRISMA 2020 guidelines, an initial search of the Scopus database yielded 292 records, which were reduced through screening and eligibility procedures to 32 articles. Studies were included if they examined emotional or affective processes within chemistry or closely related STEM learning contexts, while studies lacking disciplinary relevance or affective constructs were excluded. To reduce potential bias, screening and coding decisions were independently reviewed by a second researcher. Findings were analysed using a narrative thematic synthesis aligned with the review questions. Because EI-related research spans heterogeneous disciplinary contexts, a second-level disciplinary relevance appraisal was conducted, resulting in a final analytic dataset of 17 studies comprising 8 core chemistry–affective investigations and 9 conceptually relevant studies. A narrative thematic synthesis revealed four interrelated patterns: (1) EI is rarely adopted as an explicit theoretical framework in chemistry education, yet emotional competencies aligned with EI are structurally embedded in disciplinary learning practices; (2) affective demands emerge prominently in laboratory inquiry, representational reasoning, and socio-scientific instructional contexts; (3) existing research is shaped by methodological patterns that privilege self-report measures over process-oriented analyses of emotional dynamics; and (4) persistent conceptual gaps constrain the field's capacity to theorise emotions as constitutive of chemical meaning-making. By synthesising chemistry-specific and conceptually adjacent literature, this review advances an epistemic–affective perspective on EI in chemistry education and articulates an integrative agenda for future research. The findings highlight the need for explicit theorisation of EI grounded in disciplinary practices, methodological innovation capable of capturing situated emotional processes, and culturally responsive research that extends beyond predominantly Western contexts.

Chemical education literature suggests that General Chemistry, a required course for many STEM programs, is often perceived as difficult and stress-inducing. One measurable aspect of students’ experiences in this course is achievement emotions, which both influence and are influenced by academic performance. To assess achievement emotions in the General Chemistry context, the General Chemistry Achievement Emotions Questionnaire (AEQ-GCHEM) was developed through a revision of the existing theory-based instrument established by Pekrun's group, the Short Version of the Achievement Emotions Questionnaire (AEQ-S). Additionally, a laboratory subscale was incorporated into this modified version. Evidence supporting the instrument was established through qualitative interviews, factor analysis, and analyses of the relationships between achievement emotions and academic contexts across multiple iterations. These findings indicate that the modifications made to the AEQ-S to develop the AEQ-GCHEM resulted in a psychometrically supported instrument for collecting data on the achievement emotions experienced by students in General Chemistry lecture and laboratory courses.

Translating between representations of molecular structure is a key component of representational competence. While studies have examined how students translate between two or three representations, no studies have comprehensively investigated how students translate between multiple representations of molecular structure. Herein, we use a semi-structured think-aloud protocol to investigate how 28 Organic Chemistry I students translate between seven representations of molecular structure (molecular formulae, condensed structures, Lewis structures, skeletal structures, wedge-dash diagrams, chair conformations, and Newman projections). We identified 18 strategies students use to translate, which we grouped into three primary categories: strategies associated with decoding, mapping, and drawing. Our data show that appropriately using the decoding and mapping strategies is associated with correct translations across all representations; however, the appropriate use of drawing strategies is associated with correctly translating representations that include implicit atoms and convey 3D information. Additionally, we identified four distinct personas that describe students’ approaches to translating: the Handyperson, the Apprentice, the Quick Fixer, and the Rule Follower. These personas can help instructors anticipate common challenges and tailor support accordingly.

The teacher–student relationship is a crucial environmental factor influencing students’ academic development; however, the specific mechanisms through which it affects chemistry achievement remain unclear. While existing research affirms the importance of the teacher–student relationship, empirical evidence remains particularly scarce concerning the chain pathway through which it influences students’ interest in chemistry and their academic engagement in the subject, ultimately affecting their achievements in chemistry. This study aimed to develop and test a chain mediation model to examine this pathway. Data were collected from 678 junior and senior high school students, including measures of chemistry achievement, teacher–student relationships, interest in chemistry, and chemistry academic engagement. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was employed to analyze the direct and indirect effects. The results indicated that: (1) closeness in the teacher–student relationship had a significant positive direct effect on chemistry achievement. (2) Low conflict in the teacher–student relationship had a significant negative direct effect on chemistry achievement, but could indirectly promote chemistry achievement through students’ interest in chemistry. (3) For both dimensions of the teacher–student relationship (closeness and low conflict), a significant chain mediating effect was identified, following the pathway “teacher–student relationship → interest in chemistry → chemistry academic engagement → chemistry achievement”. These findings suggest that chemistry educators should prioritize fostering close relationships with students, effectively managing conflicts within teacher–student relationships, and ultimately enhancing achievement by cultivating students’ interest and engagement in chemistry.

Chemistry assessments shape not only what students know, but how they interpret what kinds of reasoning are valued. For multilingual learners (MLs), linguistic complexity in assessment items can constrain access to epistemological resources, masking conceptual understanding. This study examines how undergraduates' epistemological framing and resource activation are influenced by linguistic features of stoichiometry items, with attention to language background. We introduce translinguistic framing, an epistemological frame describing how MLs orient to disciplinary tasks by coordinating linguistic and semiotic resources. We conducted semi-structured think-aloud interviews with 40 undergraduates (23 English monolingual, 17 multilingual) in an introductory chemistry course at a research-intensive U.S. university. Participants examined stoichiometry item pairs combining original and linguistically revised versions. Using Hammer and Elby's (2003) epistemological resources framework, we analyzed how students framed each task and what knowledge they drew upon. Findings reveal three interrelated frames—answer-making, sensemaking, and translinguistic framing—flexibly activated depending on item design, time constraints, and linguistic load. MLs faced barriers when chemistry terminology differed from classroom language, often shifting to symbolic or procedural representations. Emotional and strategic stances, including anxiety and time-aware strategizing, further mediated resource activation, limiting conceptual engagement. Translinguistic framing, in contrast, enabled MLs to sustain disciplinary reasoning by integrating first-language terms, English keywords, and symbolic notation. This study expands models of epistemological framing by highlighting an epistemic dimension of science assessment. Implications for equitable assessment design include minimizing unnecessary linguistic complexity, offering multimodal scaffolds, and recognizing translinguistic framing as a legitimate epistemological stance supporting opportunities to demonstrate conceptual understanding.

Understanding Chemistry requires not only learning scientific concepts but also developing epistemic knowledge about how chemical knowledge is constructed, evaluated, and validated. Explicitly addressing epistemic aspects in chemistry lessons is essential for enhancing students' understanding and their performances. In this sense, this study examined how secondary school students employed epistemic knowledge involved in the scientific practice of modelling when analysing different atomic models. A qualitative design was adopted to examine in detail how participants engaged with some epistemic aspects of modelling. The participants were seventeen 15–16-year-old students enrolled in a Physics and Chemistry course at a rural public school in Spain. The intervention was conducted in the middle of semester over four 50 minute-sessions and consisted of a teaching unit on atomic models. It began with a questionnaire aimed at identifying students’ initial ideas about the atomic structure of matter with an epistemic focus, followed by several teaching activities addressing the different atomic models, with emphasis on their scientific development and historical context. At the end of the unit, an application activity was conducted to assess students’ ability to apply their epistemic and scientific knowledge of the different atomic models. The data, consisting of individual written responses, were analysed through qualitative content analysis focusing on disciplinary epistemic knowledge (recognising representational plurality, model tentativeness, and explanatory scope) and social epistemic practices (model comparison). The main findings reveal persistent challenges in students’ performances, especially in identifying the cumulative explanatory power of atomic models and in connecting phenomena with supporting evidence to each atomic model. The results suggest the need of new instructional experiences as well as strategies to explicitly incorporate epistemic aspects in Chemistry lessons together with content knowledge.

This work presents the determination of the different ways of thinking about chemical analysis that comprise the zones of a conceptual profile model of this concept. A deductive-inductive qualitative approach was adopted to analyze primary data obtained from secondary school and university students’ responses to interviews related to chemical analysis. The previously suggested expanded categories of ways of thinking about chemical analysis that emerged from the study of historical and epistemological sources (sociocultural domain) as well as students’ alternative ideas (ontogenetic domain) were utilized as a coding framework for the analysis of primary data obtained from students’ responses (microgenetic domain). Following dialogic interaction among all three data sources, six conceptual profile zones were established: everyday analysis, alchemical analysis, empirical analysis, compositional analysis, mechanistic analysis and automated analysis.

Predicting the outcome of a chemical reaction requires selecting and coordinating structural, thermodynamic, and kinetic ideas, yet little is known about how students activate and integrate these conceptual resources in real time. In this study, 25 undergraduate and graduate chemistry students completed think-aloud interviews while reasoning about a simple reaction presented through symbolic, particulate, and thermodynamic representations. Analysis of students’ predictions across successive prompts revealed three initial interpretative frames: stoichiometric completion, surface equilibrium, and temperature-feasibility, each cued by surface features of the representations. As new thermodynamic information was introduced, students frequently reframed their thinking, although in partial ways, including the emergence of an energetic-favorability frame and instances of frame collapse. Coordinated use of structural, thermodynamic, and kinetic concepts was rare. These findings highlight the central role of context-sensitive framing in chemistry reasoning and point to the need for instruction that supports frame recognition, conceptual reframing, and coordination across conceptual domains.