Christiane S. Reiners

Was ist das Seltene an den Seltenen Erden?: Eine chemiedidaktische Reflexion

One of the main questions of science education is the selection of subjects, i.e.: Why do certain chemical subjects have to be taught? The answer implies the proving that the subject is scientifically relevant, has exemplifying features and is significant in every-day-life. The subject-matter „Rare Earths” does not seem to correspond to these criteria at first glance. The adjective „ rare” evokes rather opposite associations. Perhaps rare earths are rare on earth and consequently of less scientific relevance? Perhaps they have rare properties and are therefore less exemplifying? Or they are even not relevant in our every-day-life? Definitely they are rare teaching subjects. At second glance the rare earth elements do correspond to the criteria and there are good reasons for including the topic in teacher education.

“Creating Creativity”: Improving Pre-service Teachers’ Conceptions About Creativity in Chemistry

Although creativity is considered one of the key competencies in modern society and a central aspect of nature of science, it has been neither established as a main topic in chemistry education research nor in today’s chemistry education practice. In contrast to its real nature, students mostly characterise chemistry as a solely logical and analytical discipline and fail to appreciate the importance of creativity in the development of chemical knowledge. The research project tries to address this deficiency. Based on the assumption that chemistry teachers’ adequate conceptions represent a necessary condition on the way to implement creativity into education practice, the principle aim of our study was to support prospective chemistry teachers in developing these conceptions. Thus, two different approaches were evaluated concerning their impact on teacher students’ conceptions in pre-service chemistry teacher courses at the University of Cologne. While the first approach reflects concrete historical examples of creative modelling processes, the latter offers learning environments, in which teacher students have to become creative themselves. Data were collected by open-ended questionnaires, participant observation and semi-structured interviews. The findings indicate that the first approach particularly enables the students to recognise that creativity is important in chemistry, while the latter rather offers the opportunity to realise how creativity works in chemistry. In order to develop comprehensive conceptions, a combined approach seems to be the most suitable.

Teaching Material to Introduce Students with Hearing Loss to Scientific Reasoning and Working: A Contribution to the Development of Inclusive Chemistry Education

Due to growing heterogeneity in German classes and the ratification of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, dealing with individual learning abilities and creating inclusive learning environments have become increasingly important in education. Germany is currently working towards an inclusive school system, which implies that all students attend the same school in which their diverse educational needs are taken into consideration during lesson planning. To create appropriate learning environments and to receive high standards for all students, differentiated knowledge of the students’ individual needs is necessary. However, what specific needs and learning difficulties special education students in chemistry may have has hardly been investigated in chemistry education research. The aim of the project is to develop teaching material on the topic of scientific reasoning and working, which is adapted for the needs of deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) students as an example. It is expected that the outcome of the project can contribute to the development of inclusive chemistry education.