Learning to trust experimental data: a validation-based approach to experiment design in pre-service chemistry teacher education

Abstract

In laboratory chemistry education, experimentation is still often employed as a means of obtaining a “correct” result, while the grounds for trusting data and the conditions under which it is interpreted remain implicit for learners. Even in project-oriented formats, students often lack a methodological language that would allow them to comprehend experimental results as justified and context-dependent knowledge. To address this gap, the present study explores how key features of analytical method validation, specificity, linearity, precision, and trueness, can be pedagogically reinterpreted to support students’ reasoning about experimental data and design. This approach was implemented in an educational workshop with pre-service chemistry teachers, during which participants developed and justified a spectrophotometric method for measuring the total flavonoid content in a plant matrix. A qualitative analysis of students’ written reflections was conducted to examine how engagement with validation characteristics influenced their reasoning about experimental results and the justification of methodological choices. The findings suggest that introducing analytical validation as a conceptual framework for analysing experimental data encourages students to interpret results through the lens of measurement quality, relate method features to the reliability of analytical outcomes, and apply validation criteria when designing experimental procedures. These results imply that analytical validation can serve not only as a professional analytical process but also as a methodological foundation for fostering experimental reasoning and making trust in experimental data an explicit focus in chemistry education.