Fellow Professor Sibel Erduran Publishes New Book

St Cross Fellow and Professor of Science Education Sibel Erduran has co-authored a new book, "Transforming Teacher Education Through the Epistemic Core of Chemistry: Empirical Evidence and Practical Strategies".

The book, published by Springer and written with Dr Ebru Kaya, illustrates the relevance of philosophy of chemistry in the education of chemistry teachers, and provides empirical evidence for the integration of epistemic themes in pre-service teachers' learning. It investigates how to make chemistry education more meaningful for both students and teachers, rather than concentrating on "cookbook" activities where students and teachers follow "recipes", memorise formulae and recall facts without a deeper understanding of how and why knowledge in chemistry works. 

It provides an example of how theory and practice in chemistry education can be bridged, and reflects on the nature of knowledge in chemistry by referring to theoretical perspectives from philosophy of chemistry. Drawing on empirical evidence from research on teacher education, it illustrates concrete strategies and resources that can be used by teacher educators. The book describes the design and implementation of an innovative teacher education project to show the impact of an intervention on pre-service teachers. With the use of visual representations and analogies, the project makes some fairly abstract and complex ideas accessible to pre-service teachers.

The book is the second Prof Erduran has published this year: "Argumentation in Chemistry Education: Research, Policy and Practice" came out in February. 

Ella Bedrock

01 July 2019