Peer review in the classroom can enhance numerous employability skills such as critical appraisal, writing skills, reflection practices and collaborative experiences. This study takes place over two years and discusses the implementation of a repeating blind peer review cycle across a single semester for final year chemistry students enrolled on a…

Teaching and learning chemistry or science, in general, could be described as building upon learners' existing conceptions. In order to support individual conceptual development, teachers should create opportunities for students to become aware of their thoughts. As this is very demanding in chemistry classroom practice with twenty-five or more…

We propose explicit and implicit approaches for the teaching of acid-base chemistry based on research into the history and nature of science (NoS). To support these instructional proposals, we identify four rationales for students to understand acid-base processes: daily life, socio-scientific, curriculum, and history of science. The extensive…

What evidence counts as teacher quality is a debate of continued interest to the teacher education community. Many education scholars have argued for the importance of retention of knowledge as an indicator of the quality of education acquired. This study explored the retention of the quality of planned Topic Specific Pedagogical Content Knowledge…

Preparing pre-service science teachers (PSSTs) with the scientific research skills (SRSs) is an ultimate aim of PSSTs' programs. This study aimed to explore PSSTs' understanding level of SRHs (SRHUL). To this end, an action research (AR) was adopted using a pre-post-test design. In doing so, a multiple choice test which consists of 15 items was…

New Inquiry-Based Learning (NIBL) was developed to improve students' multiple higher-order thinking skills (M-HOTS), such as thinking critically, analytically, creatively, and practically (CACP). This study aimed to examine the increase of students' M-HOTS ability, their perceptions of the NIBL model, and the contribution of the NIBL model to the…

Based in the tenants of standards-based grading or specifications grading systems, earning digital badges allows students to engage with content until they demonstrate the required knowledge through assessments to earn the badge. Using digital badges to show completion of criteria has gathered attention, but a study involving their use in a…

Information overload and limited laboratory time usually result in students focusing mostly on procedural tasks to get the results, rather than being engaged with what they are doing. Moreover, traditional laboratory curricula rarely provide students opportunities to repeat experiments. This study presents the design of a web-based application…

Organic reaction mechanisms are one of the most challenging question types in introductory organic chemistry subjects. We identified that the students within our health-based programs had traditionally performed poorly with these question types. With the aim to increase student engagement, we have developed a series of lightboard videos…

As a result of the COVID-19 disruption experienced in Spring 2020 many institutions had to close their doors and move their courses online. Our team used an existing set of virtual reality (VR) organic chemistry laboratory experiences developed for students with accessibility challenges as an online replacement for the face-to-face Organic…

The COVID-19 outbreak has altered chemistry laboratory instruction and forced us to reconsider the balance between face-to-face and online teaching. Our students preferred face-to-face teaching (score 4.1/5 on a Likert-like scale) to virtual laboratory exercises (3.4/5) despite the fact that their performance score was actually lower in…

Innovative and contemporary methods have established "digital mode of chemistry learning" as a known medium in the pre-COVID era. Developing countries, however, had less exposure and reliance on digital platforms, while the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the digital translation from conventional classroom setup, making it a mandate…

Our first-semester organic chemistry class focused on structured group work to enable active learning in class. When Smith College switched to online learning after spring break, the class was adapted to fit into an online learning model while retaining active learning. Using feedback from students, we implemented two tracks, one focused on…

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic has caused disruptions to traditional face-to-face classroom teaching. In this communication, the practice adopted in the online teaching of three chemistry subjects in a local community college, student practice and feedback, as well as a case comparison of giving responses in online classes through a chatting…

Classroom response systems are an important tool in many active learning pedagogies. They support real-time feedback on student learning and promote student engagement, even in large classrooms, by allowing instructors to solicit an answer to a question from all students and show the results. Existing classroom response systems are general purpose…