Martin Rusek

Charles University in Prague | CUNI · Department of Chemistry and Chemistry Education

Text-difficulty analysis belongs to traditional qualitative research methods. School textbook analysis represents an important discipline, the results of which are applied by successful publishers to produce better textbooks for the market. In this study the authors focus on chemistry textbooks for lower secondary schools. Since these textbooks hav...

The number of science education research papers has been rapidly rising in recent years. This number has been particularly influenced by researchers from non-English speaking countries who contribute to the field. With this number of papers, literature reviews gain in importance as they help researchers more easily orient themselves in problem area...

This study explores the pedagogical challenges in teaching chemical equations, focusing on the ability to balance chemical equations and understanding related basic chemical concepts among chemistry teacher students. Based on Johnstone's representation theory, we examined the efficacy of digital tools designed to enhance equation-balancing skills....

Only teachers who possess problem-solving skills can develop them in their students. These skills therefore need to be accentuated during teachers’ pre-service training. In this study, attention was given to pre-service chemistry teachers’ (students) problem-solving skills measured with the use of two sets of problem tasks–chemistry and general sci...

Tasks in Czech lower-secondary chemistry textbooks were analysed to describe their position in textbook chapters, required response type, overall task nature, as well as cognitive requirements. The results showed older textbooks contain task banks at the end of chapters suggest a transmissive teaching paradigm, whereas newer textbooks containing ta...

This study investigated the conceptual understanding and confidence judgment of first year preservice chemistry teachers, focusing on chemical concepts related to water. Six selected items from the Chemistry Concept Inventory (CCI) were adapted into a three-tier version and administered to 45 first-year preservice chemistry teachers. The research a...

This study investigated students’ problem-solving skills related to the periodic table of elements using three-tier tasks. A sample of 513 first-year nonchemical vocational school students from Czechia was selected to explore their knowledge and abilities regarding use of the periodic table in terms of expected outcomes from the national curriculum...

Tento výzkum se zabývá adaptací nástroje Meaningful Learning in the Laboratory Instrument (MLLI) do českého prostředí. Cílem výzkumu bylo ověřit českou verzi nástroje v praxi a na základě jeho použití zjistit naplnění očekávání studentů od kurzu laboratorní techniky v kognitivní, afektivní a kognitivně-afektivní dimenzi učení. Přeložená verze MLLI...

This study explores chemistry teachers' opinions about critical topics of chemistry education instruction: chemical nomenclature, calculations, and balancing equation. The study employed a Delphi method to refine understanding and consensus among 13 active chemistry teachers, identified through social media platforms, about the evolving educational...

Dosavadní výsledky výzkumů zaměřených na schopnost vysokoškolských studentů řešit chemické výpočty poukazují na jejich nedostatky i u základních typů výpočtů. V této studii studenti z šesti univerzit v ČR (N = 547) vyplnili test složený z úloh na základní chemické výpočty. Tento příspěvek se zaměřuje na kvalitativní analýzu postupů studentů – nejča...

Učební materiály jsou zásadní pro efektivní výuku. Materiály pro výuku chemie obsahují texty, grafy a další netextové komponenty nesoucí obsah, ovšem dosud nedisponujeme dostatečnými informacemi o jejich vlivu na učení. Studie zkoumá vliv těchto materiálů na studenty učitelství chemie, přičemž se zaměřuje na jejich schopnost samostatně materiály vy...

The presented study is focused on the analysis of the scope and conception of teaching the chemical calculations in high school textbooks. The performed detailed analysis of selected textbooks was focused on: types of calculations, the conception of their explanations, the form of example assignments, methods of solution, and opportunities for prac...

A special issue of the Frontiers in Education Journal

This study analysed the nature and integration of experimental activities in Czech lower-secondary chemistry textbooks which are currently in use. Focusing on four dominant textbook series (published since 1990's), and one recently (2019) published and certified, it investigated the offered types of student activities, their cognitive demands, plac...

Considering the importance of the use of experiment as a source of knowledge in chemistry and its teaching, it is necessary to pay attention to the risks of its implementation. The text presents the procedures and results of a risk assessment of 101 selected school chemical experiments that are used in lower secondary school practice, including the...

Considering the importance of the use of experiment as a source of knowledge in chemistry and its teaching, it is necessary to pay attention to the risks of its implementation. The text presents the procedures and results of a risk assessment of 101 selected school chemical experiments that are used in lower secondary school practice, including the...

knowledge of relevant underlying concepts. Through a series of tests and tasks, it was tested how knowledge and skills in one area translate into others. The results showed that even freshman university chemistry students did not achieve the expected results and had significant gaps in their understanding of fundamental chemical concepts. The tests...

The PBE 2022 proceedings follows the, considerably long, line of books which have been shaping the landscape of student activation methods in Central Europe and beyond. In this year’s proceedings, authors yet again targeted original project and inquiry-based topics, nevertheless, new issues emerged too. The idea of chemistry (science) escape room o...

Only teachers who possess problem-solving skills can develop them in their students. These skills therefore need to be accentuated during teachers’ pre-service training. In this study, attention was given to pre-service chemistry teachers’ (students) problem-solving skills measured with the use of two sets of problem tasks–chemistry and general sci...

Chemistry experiments have been an issue of vivid discussion for more than fifty years now. Though there are many who hold a stand-offish position, there is a general notion chemistry experiments inherently belong to chemistry instruction. In this study, attention was given first to the frequency that Czech teachers at both lower and upper-secondar...

In this research, a model to determine chemistry teachers’ acceptance of educational software in secondary education is proposed. The model extends the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) model. Data were collected from 556 Czech chemistry teachers and analysed using structural equation modelling. With respect to the signific...

Conference proceedings from 19th PBE conference.

The integrated conception of science disciplines’ teaching under the name Science has been seen as one of the solutions how to motivate students towards learning science as well as how to contextualize subject matter of the particular sub-disciplines. However, there is a limited evidence about both teachers’ willingness to change their approach as...

The research mapped chemistry-oriented university freshman students' ability to solve chemical calculations. Their success was monitored based on several factors such as their faculty, field of studies, the type of calculation and the assignment type (word problem vs. formula). The results indicate a significant need to change the approach to teach...

According to several research findings all over the world textbooks play an important role for teachers in the choice of educational goals, content as well as methods. However, the open textbook market, where the states’ influence is limited,, results in a significant gap between the state (written) curriculum and actual classroom practice. To unde...

Ability to adequately analyze educational situations is essential not only for (pre-service) teachers’ occupational decisions, but also for their own professional development. This study represents an evaluation of the observation practice aimed at pre-service chemistry teachers’ (N = 12) professional vision development. They attended chemistry cla...

The paper follows the first author's continuous work on chemistry textbook analysis. In the previous paper published in CERP, attention was given to the procedure and results for analysing text-difficulty in lower-secondary chemistry textbooks in Czechia. In this paper, attention was given to non-chemical vocational school chemistry textbooks. They...

Studies on students’ problem-solving skills worldwide suggest there is a room for improvement. This study aimed at improving upper-secondary school students’ problem-solving skills in chemistry lessons. They were given a problem tasks pre-test focused on their conceptual knowledge regarding the periodic table, ability to apply knowledge on the fact...

Teachers’ ability to reflect on teaching is one of the basic attributes that enhances quality of their instruction. However, it cannot be assumed that teacher students will be equipped with advanced/professional competences for writing reflections without this aspect being developed during their pre-service training. One of the possible opportuniti...

Similar to the existing body of the literature, the story of out-of-school learning has a broad emphasis in Turkey. Many of the studies conducted in Turkey in the field of out-of-school learning used more than one out-of-school environment at the same time. The most preferred out-of-school learning environment was science centers. The second most s...

A book chapter about Out-of-school learning in Czechia first introduces the concept from the national perspective. Second, its implementation in the national education's point of view is described.

The chapter presents an example of an out-of-school activity designed around an alchemy museum. The theme offers strong interactions with modern science especially chemistry.

This eBook is a precious asset for presenting international comparative literature in out-of-school learning. It provides an example of out-of-school learning activities in various countries and presents various practices. These are good practice exemplars for implementing and structuring out-of-school learning.

A literature review about out-of-school learning from international perspective and in years.

Contemporarily available technology has provided researchers with quite an accessible method to see through students’ eyes. This offers researchers the chance to re-evaluate teaching materials in terms of their potential function, one that has been largely overlooked. This study presents a literature review drawing on science textbooks that use the...

Textbooks as a prominent product of educational content’s didactical transformationareusuallypublishedasaseries. Textbooksareoften accompanied byworkbooksandteacher’s books. These publications are designed to support teacher’s work and canhave a significant impact on the teaching practice. To deepen the understanding ofchemical education at lower-s...

The contribution presents results of an analysis focused on current state of pedagogical practice in the field of safe chemistry experimental activities in Czechia. The analysis targeted both students’ and teachers’ experimental activities in schools focusing on valid legislation and the actual observance of safety requirements. A questionnaire was...

In this paper, attention was given to proofs of project-based education (PBE) effectiveness and other related issues reported in recent literature oriented on science education. First, PBE method is set into a context together with problem- and inquiry-based education. Second, a literature search was conducted resulting in 77 papers published on th...

In this paper, another step towards students’ attained curriculum evaluation is described. Earlier piloted tasks (think-aloud and eye-tracking) were transformed into a three-tier task shape. First, the tasks were piloted to check for the understandableness of the multiple choice second tier. Later, they were evaluated in order to optimize the distr...

The OECD sees problem-solving as a key aspect of education. Teachers’ active role is crucial for these skills to be developed in their students. This contribution presents a pilot research focused on chemistry pre-service teachers’ problem-solving skills. Students (N=38) were tested with the use of PISA and chemistry tasks. Based on the results, th...

The proceedings from the 18th PBE conference containing 28 research papers.

The aim of the study was to evaluate an Observation Practice Course’s effect on pre-service teachers’ self-efficacy. The course focused on forming chemistry teacher students’ professional vision was run in the winter semester of 2019/20. A self-efficacy questionnaire containing items oriented on general aspects of lesson observations as well as con...

Chemical calculations are considered one of the critical areas at lower-(Bilek et al., 2019) as well as upper-secondary schools (Rusek, 2014). Naturally, these are also reflected on the university level. In (chemistry) teacher training, however, these skills need to be deepened as they are supposed to facilitate students' learning of chemistry calc...

This work is focused on upper-secondary school students’ ability to use the periodic table of elements to solve problem tasks. Eye-tracking and retrospective think-aloud methods were used to evaluate the reasoning behind the students’ (N = 8) performance, i.e., to map the strategies they used and problems they faced when solving the tasks. The data...

The (written) state curriculum is one of the cornerstones influencing education. Its specifically mediated by textbooks. In an open textbook market, the influence of the state curriculum is limited, and the main responsibility passes to individual schools or teachers. In order to understand education from the potential attainment of curriculum goal...

School experiments represent a necessary means of subject-matter presentation in chemistry education and are important for chemical (scientific) thinking. Despite being a focus of several texts, a complex view on the experimental activity in chemistry education in Czechia is missing. The results of a questionnaire survey among 466 lower-secondary,...

The aim of the study was to evaluate an Observation Practice Course's effect on pre-service teachers' self-efficacy. The course focused on forming chemistry teacher students' professional vision was run in the winter semester of 2019/20. A self-efficacy questionnaire containing items oriented on general aspects of lesson observations as well as con...

In this paper, attention was given to proofs of project-based education (PBE) effectiveness and other related issues reported in recent literature oriented on science education. First, PBE method is set into a context together with problem-and inquiry-based education. Second, a literature search was conducted resulting in 77 papers published on thi...

Textbooks' fundamental influence on teaching is caused not only by their subject matter, but also by their didactic elaboration. Textbooks' individual functions are fulfilled through incorporated structural elements. Their pool is referred to as the didactic equipment of the textbook and represents qualities of the textbook through the options it g...

The aim of the study was to evaluate effectiveness of a course focused on forming pre-service chemistry teachers' professional vision and to suggest possible improvements if needed. To enhance professional vision, an Observation Practice Course's (OPC) was designed. It was built on regular visits in schools, lesson observations, their subsequent gr...

In this contribution, the authors focused on freshman university students in chemistry and chemistry education fields' success in chemical calculations as a necessary background for their university studies. Altogether 220 students from four Czech universities were given a set of tasks from five basic chemical calculation types. Each type was repre...

This contribution contains preliminary results of a systematic literature review focused on using eye-tracking (ET) in science education research. The goal was to analyse the trends in the science educational research using ET, summarize the results and identify knowledge gaps. Articles, early access articles and conference papers indexed in the We...

Students' activity is one of the key aspects of effective education. In this sense, learning tasks are significant. As textbooks in general represent the most specific form of the intended curriculum, the tasks contained in science textbooks show both students' the learning opportunities and the presented nature of science (education). In this pape...

The aim of the action research was to increase the ability of secondary vocational school students to solve chemistry problem tasks and verify the techniques these abilities’ development. The students first dealt with test consisting of three tasks selected from Methodological comments and tasks to standards for basic education - chemistry. Based o...

The central element of effective teaching is students’ own (learning) activity. This, to a great extent, depends on teachers’ instruction. Therefore, it is important that teachers are able to perceive and manage students’ activity. The purpose of this contribution is to portray the pre-service chemistry teachers’ (N=24) initial competencies in obse...

Inquiry or inquiry-based education has been a buzzword not only on conferences, but also in journal papers. Despite this educational approach is not new, authors’ interest in this topic has been growing especially after 2005. Only within science education, a search on the Web of Science gave more than 8500 results. Over 4500 contained evaluation of...

EDITORIAL This year’s conference will surely test the participants’ dedication to the cause. Almost everyone is balancing between being fed up with online lessons, meetings, consultations, webinars and getting used to extra time spared on the commute, home-made lunch delivered straight to their office and mainly the grand idea – what can I learn fr...

Textbooks are the most specific elaboration of the curriculum. They represent the intended curriculum, which is intended to be encountered directly by students. Research shows textbooks are also used by teachers to prepare their lessons (Sikorová, 2010). The effect of textbooks on education is therefore significant. One of the main determinants of...

Students' ability to solve problems is seen as a key aspect of education. Research results (e.g. PISA) indicate reserves of Czech pupils in this area [1]. The possible cause is the lack of development of these abilities in schools. The role of the teacher is crucial in this respect. The research focuses on the pre-service teachers’ problem-solving....

Chemical calculations are considered one of the critical areas at lower-(Bilek et al., 2019) as well as upper-secondary schools (Rusek, 2014). Naturally, these are also reflected on the university level. In (chemistry) teacher training, however, these skills need to be deepened as they are supposed to facilitate students' learning of chemistry calc...

Practically oriented texts from PBE 2019, as usual, cover a wider range of activation strategies. The ideas for project-based education concerned the topic of metals, carbohydrates or generally nutrition. Attention was also given to the overall contribution of project-based education to the development of students’ entrepreneurship skills. The auth...

Chemistry experiment is essential in chemistry teaching. The present action research was aimed at identification and implementation of IBSE elements to the experimental activities at lower-secondary school. By linking observation with analysis of students' experiment descriptions, the original state of experimentation was evaluated. At first, most...

This activity was presented at PBE 2018 as a model piloted on a group of chemistry pre-service teachers. In this paper the same, only slightly modified activity, was evaluated on one class of 8th graders. They underwent a four-lesson-long course which consisted of a traditionally-designed activity and an activity with inquiry context. The effect of...

Development of chemistry curriculum for lowersecondary education system in Czechia since 1989 has not been mapped yet. Nevertheless, this curriculum represents the fundamentals of chemistry education and thus affects students’ future progress. In this paper, changes in educational programmes focused on chemistry, its educational objectives, subject...

Judging by the papers published in the proceedings from PBE 2019, the title of the conference could easily be changed to *BE. There are papers dealing with not only project-based, but problem-based and inquiry-based topics bringing some evidence-based suggestions. The popular STEM or STEAM conception together with CLIL or out-of-classroom education...

Understanding the intellectual demands of an intended curriculum is crucial as it defines the frames for actual teaching and learning processes and practice during the lessons. In this study, upper-secondary school chemistry curricula contents in Czechia, Finland, and Turkey were analysed, and their objectives were compared using the Revised Bloom’...

Abstrakt Za jednu z příčin současného negativního postoje žáků k přírodovědným oborům a i jejich zájmu tyto obory volit jako budoucí profesi je uváděno pozdější zavádění přírodovědných témat do výuky. Náprava tohoto stavu úzce souvisí s připraveností učitelů na primárním stupni vzdělávání vyučovat přírodovědná témata tak, aby podnítila rozvoj pozit...

This paper is driven by a need to summarize important information about the concept of scientific literacy which is contained in several national and international publications. The study is focused on two goals: to bring a brief review of the concept of scientific literacy including its transformations and to compare definitions of the concept in...

The goal of the presented study is to investigate the process of students' problem solving. For the study, vocational students in the first year of their study (age 15-16) were chosen. First, a sample of 139 received a set of chemistry problem tasks. This was carried out at the beginning of the school year 2018, i.e. shortly after these students le...

The goal of the presented study is to evaluate the effectiveness of a university course named Observation practice which is focused on forming students - pre-service chemistry teachers’ - professional vision. It is seen as their ability to notice key aspects of educational process as well as evaluate the quality of the aspects and suggest possible...

The goal of this paper is to introduce the starting point, construction, piloting a questionnaire and preliminary results of the pilot study focused on the use of chemistry textbooks at basic schools. The tool is constructed in order to find out which textbooks are being lend to students, which textbooks are used by teachers to prepare for lessons...

This contribution aims at the actual meaning of results gained from student testing via problem tasks. According to Koreneková (2018), positive responses do not necessarily mean that students managed to solve the problem tasks and reached the expected outcomes defined in the national curriculum. Concurrent think-aloud method was used to identify st...

The aim of this paper is to present IBSE activity based on a simplified process of phenol reaction with nitrous gases on TLC. The activity was tested during Environmental Seminar with 14 pre-service biology teachers. The activity proved to be feasible. All four student groups successfully solved the task and they were able to interpret the results...

This activity was designed to stress importance of oxygen for humans with a special focus on first aid. Two activities were tested. It starts with brainstorming about air, its importance, its composition etc. The teacher directs the discussion to oxygen. As the first activity, students encounter production of oxygen. They use an oxygen sensor to me...

In this paper realization of a school project with salt being the main topic is described. While working on the project, the students found its multifaceted meaning. The main visible result of the project was published on the social network presenting information the students found. The findings stimulate a discussion to evaluate health effects of...

This research follows the previ-ous study examining the effect of chemistry education on students’ perception and understanding to the nature of chemistry (NoC) as well as their attitudes towards it as a school subject. Grade 9 students (N = 282) at the end of their compulsory schooling were given a set of open-ended questions focused on their unde...

The Effect of Using a Hospitation Sheet by Chemistry Teacher Students' on Their Lesson Reflection R46 Anotace anglicky One of the ways to improve the quality of chemistry teaching is to support teachers' ability to reflect educational process. This ability has to be cultivated during the teacher training. In practice, however, teacher students have...

This paper focuses on the procedure and results for analyzing text-difficulty in lower-secondary chemistry textbooks in the Czech Republic. The authors use established methodology for text-difficulty analysis by Nestler, adapted by Průcha and Pluskal by adding a second independent analyser to improve reliability. Some textbooks do not follow the ex...