Transforming Teacher Education Through the Epistemic Core of Chemistry: Empirical Evidence and Practical Strategies

This book synthesizes theoretical perspectives, empirical evidence and practical strategies for improving teacher education in chemistry. Many chemistry lessons involve mindless "cookbook" activities where students and teachers follow recipes, memorise formulae and recall facts without understanding how and why knowledge in chemistry works. Capitalising on traditionally disparate areas of research, the book investigates how to make chemistry education more meaningful for both students and teachers. It provides an example of how theory and practice in chemistry education can be bridged. It reflects on the nature of knowledge in chemistry by referring to theoretical perspectives from philosophy of chemistry. It draws on empirical evidence from research on teacher education, and illustrates concrete strategies and resources that can be used by teacher educators. The book describes the design and implementation of an innovative teacher education project to show the impact of an intervention on pre-service teachers. The book shows how, by making use of visual representations and analogies, the project makes some fairly abstract and complex ideas accessible to pre-service teachers.

Sibel Erduran is a Professor of Science Education at University of Oxford and a Fellow of St Cross College. She also holds a Visiting Professorship position at Zhejiang Normal University, China. She is an Editor for International Journal of Science Education, Section Editor for Science Education, and serves on the Executive Board of European Science Education Research Association. Her work experience includes positions in the USA (University of Pittsburgh), Ireland (University of Limerick) as well as other universities in the UK (King's College London and University of Bristol). Previously she held Visiting Professorships at Oxford Brookes University, National Taiwan Normal University, Kristianstad University, Sweden, and Bogazici University, Turkey. Her higher education was completed in the USA at Vanderbilt (PhD, Science Education & Philosophy), Cornell (MSc, Food chemistry and Chemistry) and Northwestern (BA, Biochemistry) Universities. She has worked as a chemistry teacher in a high school in northern Cyprus. Her research interests focus on the infusion of epistemic practices of science in science education, in particular chemistry education. Her work has received international recognition through awards from NARST and EASE, and has attracted funding from a range of agencies including the European Union, Gatsby Foundation and Science Foundation Ireland. She is currently the Principal Investigator of a project on the assessment of practical science funded by the Wellcome Trust, and her edited book on Argumentation in Chemistry Education has been published in 2019 by the Royal Society of Chemistry.

Ebru Kaya is an associate professor in science education at Bogazici University, Turkey. She received her PhD from Middle East Technical University, Turkey in 2011. Dr. Kaya has been a visiting scholar at University of Bristol, UK in 2009 and at National Taiwan Normal University, Taiwan in 2016 and 2017. Her research interests include argumentation and nature of science in science education. Dr. Kaya is the recipient of the Young Scientist Award from Science Academy in Turkey in 2015; the Outstanding Paper Award from East-Asian Association for Science Education (EASE) in Japan in 2016; and the Young Scientist Award from TUBITAK (Turkish Scientific and Technological Research Council) in 2017. Dr. Kaya has participated in research projects funded by TUBITAK (Turkish Scientific and Technological Research Council) and NARST, and conducted professional development workshops for science teachers in Turkey, Rwanda, Lebanon, and Taiwan. She served as a board member in Turkish Science Education and Research Association from 2012 to 2014, and a committee member in NARST Outstanding Paper Award Committee from 2013 to 2015. Currently Dr. Kaya is a reviewer for numerous journals including International Journal of Science Education and Science & Education. Dr. Kaya has been the Principal Investigator of the projects entitled ''Nature of Science in Science Teacher Education: A Comparative Research and Development Project'' and ''University Students' Understanding of Reconceptualized Family Resemblance Approach to Nature of Science: A Case Study'' funded by Bogazici University Research Fund.