Relationships among cognitive and emotional knowledge of teaching quantum chemistry at university level

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to identify and analyze relationships within and between the cognitive and emotional knowledge of teaching quantum chemistry as subject matter at the university level. The model of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) of Magnusson et al. (1999) was used to study the cognitive dimension. Emotional aspects, included teachers’ attitudes towards the difficulty and importance of certain topics, and teachers’ feelings with respect to student learning were also studied. A sample of university professors (n = 6) from The Netherlands who taught quantum chemistry at the undergraduate level was interviewed. Data analysis combined a quantitative and qualitative methodology. R..