Avi Hofstein

Weizmann Institute of Science | weizmann · Department of Science Teaching

p style="text-align: justify;">Eco-pedagogy is a pedagogy utilized in the framework of teaching environmental education in schools. The adoption of various eco-pedagogy programs within schools has proven to be helpful in improving students' environmental attitudes, and it was concluded that schools are the best place for critical learning of enviro...

The use of stories in science education can make science more interesting and engaging, illustrate concepts, and provide opportunities for contextual and meaningful learning. Also, integrating a scientific story in which the sustainability goals are incorporated can lead to increasing students’ motivation to learn as well as improve and facilitate...

Education is always evolving, and most recently has shifted to increased online or remote learning. Digital Learning and Teaching in Chemistry compiles the established and emerging trends in this field, specifically within the context of learning and teaching in chemistry. This book shares insights about five major themes: best practices for teachi...

Research into the educational effectiveness of chemistry practical work has shown that the laboratory offers a unique mode of instruction, assessment and evaluation. Laboratory work is an integral and important part of the learning process, used to encourage the development of high order thinking and learning alongside high order learning and think...

Teachers are key to any sustainable reform or innovation in educational practices in general, and in chemistry teaching and learning in particular. The National Science Education Standards present a vision of learning and teaching science in which all students have the opportunity to become scientifically literate. The standards provide criteria fo...

For over 60 years, learning and teaching in the chemistry laboratory have been extensively and comprehensively researched; hundreds of papers, reviews, and doctoral dis-sertations have been published worldwide with the goal of investigating the laboratory as a unique learning environment. This embracing of practical work, however, has been fraught...

A preliminary survey of the teaching of science and technology conducted in the Upper Galilee in Israel in 1989 indicated that there was a severe shortage of chemistry teachers in that area. As a result, chemistry was only taught in a limited and marginal manner in secondary schools in the northern district of Israel. Following this survey, it was...

In this paper we discuss the development of chemistry teachers' sense of ownership developed throughout a long-term continuous professional development (CPD) program. Ownership regarding a certain project (or a certain instructional technique or pedagogy) is seen as an important component of teachers' development personally and professionally. Owne...

A study was conducted on how scientific laboratory lessons contribute to building arguments, both cognitively and socially. The population consisted of 12 second-year pre-service teachers at a college of education specializing in the teaching of biology and chemistry in middle school. The study examines the nature of the arguments students raise wh...

The paper deals with repeated misconceptions of high school students regarding chemistry concepts and phenomena.

Professional development of chemistry teachers - enhancing their pedagogical content knowledge.

Attitudes of teachers and students towards alternative assessment methods,

One of the key goals of science education is to provide students with the ability to construct arguments – reasoning and thinking critically in a scientific context. Over the years, many studies have been conducted on constructing arguments in science teaching, but only a few of them have dealt with studying argumentation in the science laboratory...

Effectiveness of Teaching Chemistry by Drama Naim Najami*, Muhamad Hugerat*†, Khuloud Khalil* and Avi Hofstein*# * The Academic Arab College for Education in Israel - Haifa 22 Hahashmal st, Haifa 33145 P.O. Box 8349, Israel Tel +972 4 8303500 Ext. 561, Mobile: 972 52 4730077, Fax +972 4 8303511 muha4@arabcol.ac.il † Corresponding author # De...

Students' attitudes and motivations affect their learning process and their academic success. The purpose of the present study is to examine the influence of the use of Project-Based Learning (PBL) on Arab sector middle-school students' attitudes and motivation towards biology. The study was conducted using a mixed design, quantitative as well as q...

Over a period of more than 60 years, the chemistry laboratory has been extensively and comprehensively researched and hundreds of research papers, reviews, and doctoral dissertations have been published, investigating the laboratory as a unique learning environment. However, there were challenges and pedagogical questions regarding its educational...

This study focuses on the misconceptions of eighth-grade students in the Arab sector compared to the Jewish sector regarding the conservation of mass during combustion in a closed system and in an open system before the subject is taught, and to what extent the misconceptions change after it is taught. Students (N=195) from six heterogeneous classe...

Continuous professional development of chemistry teachers is essential for any effective chemistry teaching due to the evolving nature of the subject matter and its instructional techniques. Professional development aims to keep chemistry teaching up-to-date and to make it more meaningful, more educationally effective, and better aligned to current...

This study examines how learning acid-base concepts can be made more relevant for students. It analyzes how the concepts learned in chemistry by tenth graders are aligned with their everyday lives. Two approaches to teaching are compared: the Low Relevance Approach (LRA) and the High Relevance Approach (HRA). The HRA approach emphasizes learning ho...

This chapter elaborates on three commonly suggested concepts used in the rhetoric for educational reform in science education. One suggestion is to raise the relevance of science education. Up until now, the word ‚relevance‘ in the science education literature has often been used with high degrees of uncertainty and ambiguity. Thus as the first con...

‘Relevance’ is one of the most commonly used terms when it comes to reforms in science education. The term is used in manifold ways. It can be understood – among other things – as meeting an interest, fulfilling needs or contributing to intellectual development. Many components of relevant science education go beyond single contents and concepts; m...

Educational research and policy suggest inquiry as one of the most prominent ways of promoting effective science education. However, traditional approaches towards inquiry learning are not always sufficiently motivating for all learners. The EU-funded project, TEMI – Teaching Enquiry with Mysteries Incorporated, suggests that mysterious scientific...

Science curriculum development can involve changes in what is taught (the content and its related applications), to whom (target audiences namely the learners), and how (ways of teaching and learning, different instructional interventions). The chapter is concerned with the following key questions: Why develop the science curriculum? How and by who...

Throughout the chapter I use the terms practical work, which is common in the UK and Germany context, and laboratory work, which is common in USA, interchangeably.

Becoming an effective science teacher is a continuous process that stretches from pre-service experiences in undergraduate years to the end of a professional career. Science has a rapidly changing knowledge base, and long-term, continuous professional development (CPD) is essential for school science teaching to become more meaningful, more inquiry...

This paper presents a study focusing differences in Israeli Jewish and Arab chemistry teachers` beliefs regarding teaching and learning of chemistry in the upper secondary schools. Israel is a country experiencing the problems of diverse cultural orientation of its inhabitants but applying the same educational system to its diverse cultural sectors...

Many studies and educational policy papers present a gloomy picture with respect to the learning of chemistry, especially at the secondary school level. A key claim is that science education – particularly in chemistry – is unpopular among many students. The claim infers that students are insufficiently interested in chemistry learning. One of the...

Many studies and educational policy papers present a gloomy picture with respect to the learning of chemistry, especially at the secondary school level. A key claim is that science education - particularly in chemistry – is unpopular among many students. The claim infers that students are insufficiently interested in chemistry learning. One of the...

There is no doubt (and this is highly based on research studies) that the teacher is the key factor in the process of implementing science curricula in general, and in teaching chemistry in particular. The teachers' content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge, which are essential components of teachers’ professional knowledge base, ensure e...

In this booklet, you will be introduced to an exciting new way to teach science in your classroom. The TEMI project (Teaching Enquiry with Mysteries Incorporated) is an EU-funded project that brings together experts in teacher training from across Europe to help you introduce enquiry-based learning successfully in the classroom and improve student...

This paper discusses the essential elements of the philosophical works of Ludwik Fleck (1896 – 1961) and their potential interpretation for the teaching and learning of science. In the early 20th century, Fleck made substantial contributions to better understanding the sociological character of the nature of science and explained the embedding of s...

The interest for practical work in science education research in this period is clearly presented by the many reviews published over a period of almost 50 years. These reviews express a strong belief regarding the potential of practical work as an integral part of many chemistry curricula projects, but also admit strong difficulties in obtaining co...

In an era of reform in science education both the content and pedagogy of science learning are being scrutinized, and new standards intending to shape meaningful, authentic, relevant, and contextualized science education are emerging. For example, the Science Education Standards (NRC, 1996) were important steps in identifying the goals for achievin...

This paper elaborates on two recently-refined concepts for better understanding the rhetoric of educational reform in science education. One concept is a model for understanding the term ‚relevance‘ in science education. Up until now, this word in the science education literature has often been used with high degrees of uncertainty and ambiguity. T...

„Relevanz“ ist ein häufig gebrauchter Begriff im Zusammenhang naturwissenschaftlicher Bildung. Oftmals heißt es, das Lernen der Naturwissenschaften – insbesondere auch von Chemie – müsse relevanter oder die Relevanz naturwissenschaftlicher Bildung den Lernenden besser verdeutlicht werden. Vielfach wird dies damit begründet, dass Schülerinnen und Sc...

TEMI is a project funded by the European Commission within the 7th Framework Programme (FP7). The project involves a cooperation of 13 partners from 11 European countries. TEMI focuses continuous professional development of science teachers for the high school level. The training concept is focused on innovative elements to promote inquiry-based sc...

One of the main goals in education is to motivate students to learn. This goal is difficult to achieve; teachers and parents describe lack of interest among teenagers and interest is one of the essential factors in motivation. The level of a person’s interest has repeatedly been found to be a powerful influence on learning, several interest researc...

This paper describes the rationale and the implementation of five laboratory experiments; four of them, intended for high-school students, are inquiry-based activities that explore the quality of water. The context of water provides students with an opportunity to study the importance of analytical methods and how they influence our everyday lives....

Nowadays, at the outset of the twenty-first century, the idea that each person should have some familiarity with the nature of science is becoming more and more accepted. For example, notions such as ‘scientific literacy for all’ are beginning to play an important role in considerations pertaining to educational goals. However, these ideas pose man...

In the following paper, we describe a continuous professional development (CPD) workshop conducted over a period of one year, in which 22 science teachers participated. Two science educators served as CPD providers organized face to face and on-line meetings. The workshop was conducted in the framework of an inquiry-based European project (FP7), PR...

In 1935, Ludwik Fleck wrote his book “The generation and development of a scientific fact.” Flecks’ theory outlined in this book provides explanations how science and scientists interact with society. Based on Fleck's ideas, an educational model is discussed how information from science is transferred into society for societal discourse, and how it...

Relevance is one of the key terms in reform in science education. Teachers are forced to make their teaching ‘more relevant’ to avoid a loss in interest and motivation. However, the term is not used coherently. An analysis of the literature shows that there are various meanings how the term is used in science education. From a thorough analysis of...

This paper discusses learning about the role and function of science and scientific information in public debate as an essential component for a developed and multidimensional scientific literacy. It gives a justification for more thoroughly dealing with societal debate in science education and learning about the way in which debates and decisions...

One of the key goals of science education is to provide students with the ability to construct arguments – reasoning and thinking critically in a scientific context. Over the years, many studies have been conducted on constructing arguments in science teaching, but only a few of them have dealt with studying argumentation in the science laboratory...

The present research is part of a longitude research study regarding the questioning behavior of students in the inquiry chemistry laboratory in Israel. We found that students who were involved in learning chemistry by the inquiry method ask more and higher-level questions. However, throughout the years, we have observed that differences between th...

Traditionally, most teachers, both during their pre-service training as well as during their in-service experience, are exposed to only the conceptual structure and processes of chemistry. However, teaching chemistry most effectively necessitates both content knowledge as well as pedagogical content knowledge. Regarding the content knowledge, it is...

‘Relevance’ is one of the key terms related to reforms in the teaching and learning of science. It is often used by policy-makers, curriculum developers, science education researchers and science teachers. In recent years, many policy documents based on international surveys have claimed that science education is often seen (especially at the secon...

This research consists of a diagnostic study, followed by a curricular development and implementation regarding the teaching of the bonding concept. The diagnostic study focuses on students’ difficulties over two decades as regards this concept. We focused on how the structure and content of the 12th-grade matriculation examinations conducted in Is...

Chemistry curricula as a whole, or single lesson plans can use different approaches towards the learning of chemistry. Some are arranged parallel to academic chemistry; others provide meaningful contexts to motivate the learning of chemistry. Chemistry curriculum approaches can stem from the structure of the discipline, or history of chemistry, via...

Laboratory activities have long had a distinctive and central role in the chemistry curriculum as a means of making sense of the natural world. For many years chemistry educators have suggested that many benefits accrue from engaging students in the science laboratory. The wide written array of literature illustrates that, the laboratory provides a...

This chapter discusses the concepts of motivation and interest, and provides insight into the basic theories underlying these concepts. These theories explain why it is important for chemistry teachers to deal with these theories and what one can expect of students when they are motivated to learn and interested in learning. The chapter will also p...

This book focuses on developing and updating prospective and practicing chemistry teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge. The 11 chapters of the book discuss the most essential theories from general and science education, and in the second part of each of the chapters apply the theory to examples from the chemistry classroom. Key sentences, tasks...

Der Artikel beleuchtet die Frage nach der Relevanz des Chemieunterrichts vor dem Hintergrund seines allgemeinbildenden Auftrags. Es wird besonders beleuchtet, welche Rolle eine stärkere gesellschaftliche Orientierung des Chemieunterrichts dabei spielen kann.

An inquiry-oriented laboratory in chemistry was integrated into the chemistry curriculum in Jewish high schools in Israel, and after a short period was also implemented in Arab sector. In this study, we investigated the effect of culture on the perceptions of laboratory classroom learning environments by comparing the perceptions of Arab and Jewish...

One of the goals of science education is to equip students with the ability to rationalize and criticize arguments in scientific contexts. Over the past decade, many studies have been conducted on constructing arguments in science teaching, but only few of them deal with studying argumentation in the context of the laboratory. Our research was cond...

One common theme underlying recent reports on science education is that the content of school science and its related pedagogical approaches are not aligned with the interests and needs of both society and the majority of the students. Most students do not find their science classes interesting and motivating. These claims are especially valid rega...

This article describes a study conducted in Israel which focused on how learning industrial chemistry case studies affects students' perceptions of their classroom learning environment and their interest in chemistry studies. The goal of the study was to determine the effects of industrial case studies on students' perceptions of chemistry in gener...

Discussions held in the chemical education community have generated a variety of reports and recommendations for reforming the chemistry curriculum. The recommendations refer to teaching chemistry in the context of real-world issues. This has been suggested as a way to enhance students' motivation. It is suggested that real-world problems emphasize...

This chapter reviews research on practical work in order to demonstrate not only its potential but also its challenges and problems. A main point to be made is that practical work is not a static issue but something that has evolved gradually over the years, and which is still developing. The development relates to changing aims for science educati...

Argumentation is believed to be a significant component of scientific inquiry: introducing these skills into laboratory work may be regarded as a goal for developing practical work in school science. This study explored the impact on the quality of argumentation among 12- to 13-year-old students undertaking three different designs of laboratory-bas...

AbstrAct Developing positive attitudes toward and interest in science in general and learning science in particular is one of the key goals for teaching and learning the sciences. Thus, over the years, this area fuelled many research studies, these being focused on: content, pedagogical, and curricular issues. In this paper we focused on the issue...

In order to cope with complex issues in the science–technology–environment–society context, one must develop students’ high-order learning skills, such as question-asking ability (QAA), critical thinking, evaluative thinking, decision-making, and problem-solving capabilities within science education. In this study, we are concerned with evaluating...

In order to help teachers to bring their students into contact with the frontiers of chemistry, a special program for enhancing chemistry teachers' content knowledge as well as their pedagogical knowledge was launched at the Weizmann Institute of Science. The program, which was specifically designed for the chemistry teachers, consists of three sta...

Chemical bonding is one of the key and basic concepts in chemistry. The learning of many of the concepts taught in chemistry, in both secondary schools as well as in the colleges, is dependent upon understanding fundamental ideas related to chemical bonding. Nevertheless, the concept is perceived by teachers, as well as by learners, as difficult, w...

There seems to be a common feature underlying recent reports on chemistry and science education all over the world, namely that learning content and the related pedagogical approaches to it in school science are not aligned with the interests and needs of both society and most of the students. Most pupils do not categorize chemistry and science lea...

Reforms in science education in general and in chemistry education in particular have been introduced in many countries since the beginning of the 21st Century. Similarly, at this time in Israel both the content and pedagogy of the chemistry curriculum in high schools were reformed. New content and pedagogical standards emerged, fostering meaningfu...

One of the goals of science education is to provide students with the ability to construct arguments—reasoning and thinking critically in a scientific context. Over the years, many studies have been conducted on constructing arguments in science teaching, but only few of them have dealt with studying argumentation in the laboratory. Our research fo...

This study investigated the effectiveness of a web-based learning environment in enhancing 10th grade high-school students' understanding of the concept of chemical bonding. Two groups participated in this study: an experimental group (N = 161) and a comparison one (N = 93). The teachers in the experimental group were asked to implement four activi...

Traditional curriculum for teaching bonding often fosters the use of over-simplifications and over-generalizations. Therefore, there is a need for a presentation that is consistent with current scientific knowledge and that provides the student with the proper intellectual infrastructure for further studies. In this article, we present a general fr...

The study described in this article is based on a long-term comprehensive series of investigations that were conducted in the context of teaching high school chemistry in the laboratory using inquiry-type experiments. The students that study chemistry according to this program are involved in an inquiry process that included all the inquiry skills...

This paper describes the implementation of an open-ended inquiry experiment for high-school students, based on gas chromatography (GC). The research focuses on identifying the level of questions that students ask during the GC open inquiry laboratory, and it examines whether implementing the advanced inquiry laboratory opens up new directions for s...

In this study our goal was to better understand the development of chemistry teachers who are involved in a continuous professional development (CPD) programme, focusing on using the inquiry approach in the chemistry classroom-laboratory, followed by protocols assembled in a port- folio that can be used to demonstrate evidence-based practice in che...

The focus of this collaborative research project of King’s College London, and the Weizmann Institute, Israel is on investigating the ways in which teachers can demonstrate accomplished teaching in a specific domain of science and on the teacher learning that is generated through continuing professional development (CPD) programmes that lead toward...

The study describes the process of adopting new curriculum materials, which had been developed in the PARSEL project in several European countries, into the local educational science classroom of another country. The goal of the PARSEL project was to raise the popularity and relevance of science teaching by enhancing students’ scientific and techno...

The goal of this study was to investigate whether integrating a website into chemistry teaching influences 10th‐grade students' perceptions of the classroom learning environment, their attitudes regarding the relevance of chemistry, and their understanding of the concept of chemical bonding. Two groups participated in this study: an experimental gr...

The traditional pedagogical approach for teaching chemical bonding is often overly simplistic and not aligned with the most up-t