Meaningful learning of models and modelling in chemistry education by adapting authentic practices

In science education students should come to understand the nature and significance of models, and develop the competence to produce, test and evaluate models. In the literature several problems related to learning models and modelling has been reported. In case of chemistry education we found indications that the main cause for the reported learning problems is that the present use of models is not meaningful from students’ perspective. These problems could be resolved by using suitable contexts in chemistry education. We argue that authentic practices, characterized by a set of attitudes, tools and techniques, procedures and social interactions, can be used as templates for designing context-based modules. The aim of this study was to identify, analyse and select authentic practices, in which models are developed, for use in chemistry education. The suitability of the practices was judged according to a pre-formulated set of conditions. It was concluded that drinking water treatment modelling is more suitable than Microbiological Risk Assessment modelling because of the presence of a clear motive from students’ perspective for model development and the possibility to conduct experiment in classroom for model calibration and validation. This paper concludes by describing steps planned next in this research project: an empirical study on the students’ involvement in authentic practices, followed by designing and testing a complete authentic practice based module.