Selection of authentic modelling practices as contexts for chemistry education

Abstract

In science education, students should come to understand the nature and significance of models. In the case of chemistry education it is argued that the present use of models is often not meaningful from the students' perspective. A strategy to overcome this problem is to use an authentic chemical modelling practice as a context for a curriculum unit. The theoretical framework for this strategy is activity theory rooted in socio-cultural theories on learning. An authentic chemical modelling practice is characterized by a set of motives for model development through a well-defined modelling procedure using only relevant issue knowledge. The aim of this study was to explore, analyse, and selec..