Bringing design practices to chemistry education is gaining interest with recent science curriculum reforms emphasising design, and calls for integrated STEM education. Design is a central practice in the chemistry discipline, and could foster meaningful chemistry education. Although chemistry teachers are key in bringing design to chemistry classrooms, and in realising design’s potential for learning, little is known about their views on teaching and learning regarding design. To reduce this gap in literature, we explored chemistry teachers’ pedagogical ideas in the context of a Dutch professional learning community on design in chemistry education. We elicited teachers’ ideas through semi-structured interviews and lesson forms which teachers kept while implementing a design project. Multiple patterns emerged through analysing teachers’ ideas. We found that the teachers did not see teaching design as a goal of chemistry education. Instead, teachers valued design as a teaching approach to engage students in applying chemistry concepts, in developing soft skills, and in applying or developing research practices. In this paper, we present more patterns in teachers’ ideas, and discuss possible explanations of these findings in depth. Finally, we give suggestions for future research, and teacher professional development that may help support a change to bring design into chemistry education.

Research and design activities are important focus points in international policies for secondary Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education. It is up to school teachers to implement and supervise these activities in the STEM classroom. However, not much is known about the attitudes teachers hold towards supervising research projects or design projects. In this study, a questionnaire to measure teacher attitudes towards supervising research activities and design activities in secondary school was completed by 130 Dutch teachers who taught the relatively new Dutch STEM subjects O&O (research and design) and NLT (nature, life, and technology). These integrated STEM subjects are project and context based and are taught in a limited number of schools. Important differences between these integrated STEM subjects are their student and teacher populations: NLT is taught in grades 10–12 by teachers with a qualification in a science subject, while O&O is taught in grades 7–12 and can be given by any teacher in secondary school. The results showed that on average, both O&O and NLT teachers had high self-efficacy scores on supervising research and design projects even when they had received no special education in doing so. Furthermore, the teachers in general viewed supervising research projects as a more relevant activity than supervising design. Since research and design activities are becoming more important in (inter)national curriculum standards, STEM teacher education and subsequent professional development should not only familiarize teachers with supervising research projects, but with design projects as well.

The purpose of this study is to provide insight into short-term professionalization of teachers regarding teaching socioscientific issues (SSI). The study aimed to capture the development of science teachers' pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) for SSI teaching by enacting specially designed SSI curriculum materials. The study also explores indicators of stronger and weaker development of PCK for SSI teaching. Thirty teachers from four countries (Cyprus, Israel, Norway, and Spain) used one module (30–60 min lesson) of SSI materials. The data were collected through: (a) lesson preparation form (PCK-before), (b) lesson reflection form (PCK-after), (c) lesson observation table (PCK-in-action). The data analysis was based on the PCK model of Magnusson, Krajcik, and Borko (1999). Strong development of PCK for SSI teaching includes “Strong interconnections between the PCK components,” “Understanding of students' difficulties in SSI learning,” “Suggesting appropriate instructional strategies,” and “Focusing equally on science content and SSI skills.” Our findings point to the importance of these aspects of PCK development for SSI teaching. We argue that when professional development programs and curriculum materials focus on developing these aspects, they will contribute to strong PCK development for SSI teaching. The findings regarding the development in the components of PCK for SSI provide compelling evidence that science teachers can develop aspects of their PCK for SSI with the use of a single module. Most of the teachers developed their knowledge about students' understanding of science and instructional strategies. The recognition of student difficulties made the teacher consider specific teaching strategies which are in line with the learning objectives. There is an evident link between the development of PCK in instructional strategies and students' understanding of science for SSI teaching.

Research and design activities are becoming more important in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) and D&T (design and technology) education. Research and design are often taught separately from each other, while in professional STEM practices, many projects are neither ‘research only’ or ‘design only’—they are both. In this study, we aimed to provide insights in teachers’ personal and shared knowledge on how research and design can be connected. To this end, we examined the development of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) and beliefs of six teachers of the Dutch STEM subject O&O (research and design), who participated in a professional learning community (PLC) aimed at connecting research and design within this subject. Results of pre and post-PLC interviews showed that teachers’ personal PCK was very diverse, probably due to their different beliefs, backgrounds and teaching contexts. Through jointly designing instructional strategies for connecting research and design, teachers contributed to a collective knowledge base. The results of this study indicate that a professional learning community in which teachers with varying backgrounds construct knowledge and instructional strategies together, can be a powerful method to enhance personal PCK and collective knowledge. These are promising outcomes in the light of shaping professional development activities for STEM and D&T teachers, which in turn aims to provide students with a holistic and realistic view on current professional STEM fields.

The aim of this study was to explore how the design of this chemistry lesson for citizenship influences students’ use of different perspectives in decision-making about ‘the use and sale of laughing gas’. In this study, ‘the use and sale of laughing gas among youth’ was chosen as a socio-scientific issue. This chemistry lesson for citizenship was designed according to the 5E instructional approach, and activating pedagogical methods and tools (i.e., group discussion, reading the information cards, taking notes, watching instructional videos) were used. Both the types of perspectives used and the effectiveness of the pedagogies implemented were explored. Twenty-three students from two classes participated in the study. The data were collected through five tools (four worksheets and a questionnaire). The students mainly used ‘scientist’ perspective by focusing on what research says about the possible consequences of inhaling laughing gas. The students also focused on ‘health’; principally, they referred to the relation between the amount of laughing gas used and the damage it may cause. As to the influential pedagogical elements of the lesson, the ‘videos’ were found to be the most effective and informative. In addition, the ‘group discussion’ was also found to be an influential activity of the lesson on making decisions about the use and sale of laughing gas. Therefore, our results suggest that the lesson design supported the students to recognize and use different perspectives to make informed decisions about the sale and use of laughing gas.

Technological design is a core activity in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education. During the design process, students often employ research activities to enhance the quality of their design decisions and to rise above a mere trial-and-error approach to designing. There are many functions of research within the design process, for example theoretical research, user research, or testing a prototype. In this study, we aimed to examine student and teacher perceptions of the functions of research in the context of a design-oriented STEM module in Dutch secondary education. To do so, we first examined in what ways students and teachers who conducted or respectively taught the STEM module recognized functions of research within design. We also looked at the value students attributed to these functions, and how teachers described their facilitation of the functions of research within design. During the STEM module, students conducted a design project related to an authentic problem in biomedical technology, while using research activities to support their design decisions. Results from student focus groups and teacher interviews showed that they recognized several ways in which research activities contribute to a design process. Students valued the functions of research within design as important for the end product, although some students preferred to skip research and start building their design right away. Some teachers employed strategies to ensure students learned to do research steps, for example by a reverse design exercise. The results from this study raise the question whether all students should apply research activities in the same order during a design process, since different students seem to prefer different ways of designing. A design-oriented STEM module like this one is an appropriate way to start showing students the functions of research within design, however differentiation between different students’ preferences could possibly enhance this learning process.

In this chapter, we discuss a methodology to analyse student teachers' personal pedagogical content knowledge (pPCK) development in a chemistry teacher education programme using PCK-oriented forms for lesson planning, evaluation and reflection. We unravel the student science teachers' development of pPCK in terms of (1) developmental steps, (2) pPCK components and (3)moderating personal factors. Our method relies on authentic data sources only, namely student teachers' products based on assignments in their teacher training programme. By combining three analytical frameworks, we were able to characterise individual differences within the student teachers' pPCK development for chemistry teaching. Such results can inform new ways of tailored scaffolding of this development in student teachers.

In design-based education, students use scientific concepts to inform their artifact-making endeavors. On the other hand, artifactmaking activities are meant to deepen students' conceptual understanding. However, no strategy has been described that explicitly links conceptual development and artifact-making endeavors in computer science design projects in an authentic way. To fill this gap, in this 'work in progress' study, we developed an instructional model for fusion designing and conceptual learning in CS education. A key component of the model is the 'intermediate design products' which play a critical role in connecting designing and conceptual learning. The model served to develop exemplary lesson materials meant to enhance students' algorithmic thinking. The materials were implemented and evaluated in four classes. The results suggest the model provides opportunities to improve students' algorithmic thinking. Furthermore, intermediate products turn out to be promising inputs for (formative) assessment of conceptual development in design projects by capturing and revealing students' misconceptions about basic CS concepts.

Research and design activities are often employed in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics) education. This study aims to examine students’ attitudes towards doing research and design activities in secondary school, among two groups of students: (1) students that take the quite recently introduced Dutch subject O&O (research & design), in which students perform authentic research and design projects related to STEM disciplines; and (2) students that do not take O&O. The subject O&O is only taught at a limited number of certified, so called ‘Technasium’, schools. A questionnaire, developed by the authors, was completed by 1625 students from Grades 8 and 11. Unlike previous studies on student attitudes, which usually use abstract concepts like ‘science’ or ‘technology’, the questionnaire used in this study contains active verbs to characterise research and design activities. The results showed that, in general, students who took the subject O&O had more positive attitudes towards doing research and design activities than regular students. Both student groups appeared to find doing design activities more enjoyable than doing research activities. The results of this study provide useful information for teachers as well as teacher educators about the existing attitudes of students, for example their preference for design projects over research projects.