What is Chemistry Education Research?
Chemistry Education Research (CER) is a type of Discipline-Based Education Research (DBER). Physics, Chemistry, and Biology are among the oldest disciplines to develop education research subfields, but this is growing rapidly in other STEM areas. For more about this: see the National Research Council's 2012 "DBER Report".
Chemistry education research (CER) is fundamentally inter- and multi-disciplinary. Knowledge and methods from chemistry and related fields, such as psychology and cognitive sciences, are used to scientifically study how people teach and learn chemistry. There are many different types of CER studies. Examples of CER research questions our group has pursued include:
- What skills do materials chemists use in their research?
- What factors influence why and how high school chemistry teachers incorporate climate change science in their courses?
- In what ways do deficit, anti-deficit, and asset framed teaching approaches differentially impact students from majoritized or marginalized backgrounds?
- How do students explain the relationship between the design of their introductory chemistry course and their experience with chemistry?
To address questions like these, we employ qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methodologies and equity-informed research theories and frameworks. This ensures our research findings and outputs support the needs of all students and works toward more inclusive and accessible education in chemistry and STEM.