Ellen J. Yezierski

Development of a protocol to evaluate the use of representations in secondary chemistry instruction

Although observational protocols have been developed that assess different aspects of science teaching, none of the protocols existing in the literature address the principles of effective chemistry instruction guided by Johnstones triangle of macroscopic, symbolic, and particulate representations of matter (Johnstone, 1991). We developed our own protocol, the Representations in Chemistry Instruction (RICI) protocol, to meet this need. RICIs research-based indicators include: (1) who used the representations (teacher or student) during instruction; (2) the role of representations in improving conceptual understanding; (3) the quality of discourse around the representations; and (4) the degree to which different representations (macroscopic, symbolic and particulate) were integrated in the lesson. The protocol was evaluated for face validity by a panel of chemistry education researchers and for reliability with evaluation of paired observations by two researchers, resulting in a Cohens kappa of 0.71. The RICI protocol, used with an inquiry-based instruction observation protocol, like the similarly formatted EQUIP (Marshall et al., 2009), can evaluate the quality of secondary chemistry instruction for education researchers and professional development leaders, provide feedback to chemistry teachers for professional growth, and serve as a model for effective use of representations in chemistry instruction.

A novel qualitative method to improve access, elicitation, and sample diversification for enhanced transferability applied to studying chemistry outreach

Conducting qualitative research in any discipline warrants two actions: accessing participants and eliciting their ideas. In chemistry education research, survey techniques have been used to increase access to participants and diversify samples. Interview tasks (such as card sorting, using demonstrations, and using simulations) have been used to elicit participant ideas. While surveys can increase participation and remove geographic barriers from studies, they typically lack the ability to obtain detailed, thick description of participant ideas, which are possible from in-person interviews. Minimal research in CER has examined how to harness technology to synthesize traditionally diverse research approaches to advance the field. This paper presents a novel method for interviewing research participants employing freely available technology to investigate student ideas about the purposes of conducting chemistry outreach, how success of an outreach event is evaluated, and student understanding of the chemistry content embedded in activities facilitated at events. As the outreach practitioner population comes from numerous institutions and is therefore geographically diverse, technology is necessary in order to gain access to these students. To elicit their ideas and remove barriers associated with rapport, interview tasks are adapted and implemented electronically. The description of a novel set of methods is coupled with evidence from the interviews to illustrate the trustworthiness of the data obtained and to support the method as a means to improve qualitative data collection in chemistry education research. These methods create a unique data collection environment for off-site investigations and are applicable to all disciplines, as they shed light on how qualitative research in the 21st century can increase the diversity of samples and improve the transferability of findings.

Announcement and Description of the Journal of Chemical Education Editor-in-Chief Position

The Board of Publication of the Division of Chemical Education announces the opening of a search for the ninth Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Chemical Education. The Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Chemical Education is responsible for all aspects of its publication either directly or cooperatively through the copublication agreement with the American Chemical Society Publications Division. This announcement describes the Editor-in-Chief position and its responsibilities, the associated editorial support staff, and the application procedure.