National Reports

Teaching resources have been collected and reviewed since the beginning of the “Chemistry is All Around Network” project, as provided for in the project. Yet, Inforef and its working group went further as they used this opportunity to create new resources and train teachers to use them. Different working groups of teachers were formed. Since late 2013, Inforef has organised the testing of those resources in the different schools involved in the project. The idea was to create complete lesson sequences in which ICT resources would be integrated in a relevant way. The audience includes secondary school students of various levels and future science teachers.

The report presents successful experience and good pedagogic practices in teaching chemistry at Bulgarian secondary schools in the context of the European educational policy for development of key competences for the young people. Problem-based approach, experimental work, project-based activities and other new teaching methods and technologies are discussed as effective way to improve the students’ scientific literacy and their motivation to study chemistry. Good practices in Implementation of information and communication technologies in educational process using multimedia presentation, videolessons, interactive materials and other are described. The report pays attention on the ways of sharing successful experience and practice in science and mainly Chemistry teaching at Bulgarian schools – conferences and forums, journals and, websites and portals. The impact of Chemistry is all around Network Project on Successful Experiences including networking activity and testing of interactive teaching resources is described.

This work focuses the issue of successful experience in chemistry teaching. Educational system of the Czech Republic faces many problems and challenges not only in the field of natural sciences. In spite of that situation, Czech Republic has a lot of successful experience in the field of chemistry education. There are innovative teaching methods, successful projects, teachers, science experts and pedagogues, scientists, schools, students, textbooks, online portals and many activities focused on popularization of chemistry. This report gives a brief description of the general situation in successful experience in chemistry teaching and fundamental competences that students should have in order to face the study of chemistry. The students` motivation and science teachers` lifelong learning were the main themes of the three-year activity of the Chemistry is all around us network project. The outcome of this activity is a portal with high number of teaching resources and papers focused on national and international situation in 11 European countries. During three years, a teachers` community has been created connected with associated schools and experts. This report is the outcome of the three/year process and it highlights the successful experience of each issue. Science teachers and researchers as well as their results are very good role models for the youth. The media and society do not care about that enough and many students do not even know about that. The main idea of this report is to summarize and highlight the most successful experience and disseminate them to Czech teachers` community and society.

In this report effort is made to present an overview of successful experiences in chemistry teaching in Greece based both on bibliographical evidence as well as on teachers’ and scientific experts’ testimonies. A brief description of the national sources available for Greek teachers in order to get suggestions concerning successful experiences in chemistry teaching is presented. The key competences which students need to develop in order to face successfully the study of chemistry are subsequently presented. These competences are examined in the general framework of the required learning skills for students in the 21st century. Five selected examples of successful experiences in chemistry teaching taken from the Greek educational reality are presented. The reported examples cover all three educational levels (primary, secondary and tertiary education) and their successful learning outcomes have been validated via conduct of educational research. Detailed content analysis of the material of the national workshop on successful experiences has provided evidence for the Greek chemistry teachers and scientific experts opinions on “what constitutes a successful experience in chemistry teaching” and the conditions required for the successful implementation of a novel teaching approach. In addition, several proposals of good teaching practices made by Greek chemistry educators are presented. Finally, the results on the testing by several Greek teachers of 11 teaching resources available in the Chemistry is All Around Network project database are critically discussed. The feedback received by both teachers and students provides evidence for the positive impact of the Chemistry is All Around Network project on chemistry education in Greece.

Across Europe, and indeed the rest of the world, the future of Chemistry as a subject for teaching, as well as learning, and for appreciation in the continuum of lifelong learning, has been a cause for concern. Public perceptions of chemistry and chemicals have suffered from negative reinforcement and stereotyping. As a result, secondary and tertiary level Chemistry has declined in popularity. Many initiatives have been designed and implemented to try to redress this issue, and some of these have proved very successful. While it is acknowledged that Chemistry will probably remain a minority subject, its importance and relevance to the everyday life of twenty first century citizens should not be devalued. To ensure a quality experience of Chemistry for students it is important to put the teacher at the heart of the process. Successful experiences may involve implementation of new technologies or new pedagogical techniques but their success depends on the initial training of the teachers as well as support for their continuous professional development. This report reviews the current situation in Ireland and describes initiatives to encourage an appreciation of Chemistry among our student and general populations, and to promote and support teaching of Chemistry.

The national report on successful experiences in chemistry teaching focuses mainly on the presentation of seven valuable experiences performed in Italian schools and on the description of the testing carried out to further enhance the database of ICT resources available on the project portal of Chemistry Is All Around Network. The seven successful experiences are based on the laboratory approach, that is the action of the student in situation and comply with the New National Guidelines 2012 for the Italian school system, which outline a teaching based on the development of competences. According with the aim of competence development, seven ICT resources were tested in classroom by the teachers involved in the project: a description of how they were used and the evaluation of the results obtained are reported in this paper and, more in detail, in the project portal.

The main objective of this report is to present the examples of best practices and experiences in Poland with references to national sources such as websites and journals where teachers can find suggestions and guidance about successful experiences dealing with teaching and learning Chemistry in Poland and abroad. The report also describes the fundamental competences that students should have in order to face the study of chemistry in Poland. Furthermore, the author will present examples of successful experiences with reference to reviewed national publications and will describe the criteria to assess the improvement of learning of Chemistry thanks to the above experiences. In the last part of the report the author will make reference to the Chemistry is all Around Network Project outcomes (workshops with teachers and testing of ICTs applied in Chemistry education) and will describe its role in the improvement of teaching and learning chemistry in Poland.

This report presents the results of the work performed within the third year of the Chemistry is All Around Network Project on the thematic “Successful experiences in chemistry teaching”. Apart from the bibliographic indications, the presented results are based on the experience shown by the participant teachers. An overview of the available national resources to support teaching activities was done and three selected examples of successful experiences were described (Casa das Ciências (House of Sciences), Química das Coisas (Chemistry of Things) and Portuguese network of Science Museums). A special focus was given to the testing of digital resources where an innovative method using the mediation of learning guides was used.

Situation in Slovakia in the field of successful experiences in chemistry teaching is very interesting because in most of the Slovak primary and secondary schools is teaching approach and teaching methodology very traditional. On the other hand we have in Slovakia very successful projects and approaches and teachers which are using new ICT technology in teaching chemistry and new pedagogical approaches as you can see in our examples of successful experiences. The first one is the pedagogical and psychological art of the teacher who has the freedom to create the curriculum of the subject and choose the method of teaching. The second is connection of education with real life. Successful projects were realized on national level – Modernization of education process in secondary schools in Slovakia but it mostly about individual teachers activities which will teach chemistry on another way with new methods and approaches.

Despite the general consensus on the importance that science education is observed a decrease of interest of students in science studies. This has led to seek new methodological approaches to achieve greater motivation of our students, as well as a more effective education. This document is an overview of the most important publications on research into the science of Spanish-speaking education, through which we can see reflected the current state of research in the teaching of Sciences in our country. The following is a review of the minimum skills required of students in our educational system and how through the teaching of chemistry can be achieved most of them. Finally, a brief review of the most relevant methodological guidelines in the teaching of chemistry and some resources found through the realization of the project “Chemistry is all around network”.

The creation of a student profile who is scientific literacy is a challange for many countries. Because of this reason, each country develop teaching program for them. Science teaching program is prior of them. Thanks to this science teaching which will be given an importance is given on scientific teaching, analyzing scientific knowledge and being a scientific literacy. Countries make some regulations according to their evaluation meetings. In 2000s, science teaching program was developed as taking base of constructivist approach. Then, some regulations were made according to this approach.