Introduction: Research and practice in chemical education in advanced courses

Abstract

For many years, chemical education research was done by individuals involved in pre-service teacher training and in-service teacher workshops. As a result, it often focused on the problems faced by elementary- and secondary-school students encountering chemistry topics for the first time. Because a large fraction of the students enrolled in chemistry courses at the tertiary level can be found in first-year courses, it is not surprising that as research expanded to studies of college and university students, it began by looking at the experiences of students in introductory courses. Recent years have seen a significant increase in the number of research studies that focus on students in upper-level courses at the undergraduate and graduate level. This is an important development because of the different cognitive and pedagogical challenges that are encountered in ‘advanced’ courses. This special issue of CERP is therefore devoted to studies that have the potential of producing changes in the way upper-level courses are taught that are equivalent to the changes that research on the teaching and learning of chemistry by high-school and introductory level students has had on the way courses for these students are being taught.