This article uses fieldnotes along with student and practitioner feedback to recount the challenges, benefits, and broader learnings of engaging master's students in a participatory research seminar. The students developed research proposals about a real-world socioeconomic challenge with and for local practitioners. Proposals were consistent with…

Complex public health programmes may suffer from 'teething problems' during their implementation in practice, especially when programmes are developed top-down without the participation of end-users and service providers. Trying out and optimising a new concept in practice with stakeholder's participation may enhance the programme's chance of…

In recent years, serious games and game-based learning have received growing attention in educational contexts in general and science teaching and learning. They play an especially prominent role in higher education, where they are used to promote content knowledge as well as higher order cognitive skills and competencies such as communication,…

The Participatory Action Research (PAR) model developed by Eilks and Ralle is very well known in science education. Over the years, many teaching and learning materials have been developed and implemented in German secondary schools using this method. The success of the model encouraged us to adapt it to the university level in order to develop…

The debate on the use of pesticides is very current in the public media when it comes to topics such as organic farming, bee mortality, and the use of glyphosate. The broad range of pesticide applications and their potential environmental impact makes pesticides an interesting topic for science education in general and for chemistry teaching in…

In the past decades, society in general has become strongly diverse. This change also affects schools. As a result, learning groups cannot be seen as homogeneous and taught in this way. One of the challenges is students' linguistic skills. Dealing with different linguistic competencies should not only be a focus of formal education in schools but…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to review the variation in methods used to analyse lessons in order to improve teaching and learning. Design/methodology/approach: It addresses the question of how observations of lessons can be analysed, and what approaches and methods are applicable in the analysis of collected data in lesson and learning…

The argument in this paper is that action and participatory research developed within the context of social and political movements aimed at promoting democratic relationships and institutions represents a methodological strategy for deconstructing and reconstructing the hegemonic perspective of knowledge and knowledge production. After a brief…

PROFILES is a project of teacher education and curriculum innovation funded by the FP7-programme of the European Union. The aim of PROFILES is implementing innovative science teaching practices incorporating a societal perspective and compassing inquiry-based science learning. The University of Bremen, Germany, as one of the partners, combines…

In keeping with the overarching RadioActive101 (RA101) spirit and ethos, this report is the product of collaborative and joined-up thinking from within the European consortium spread across five countries. As such, it is not simply a single voice reporting on the experiences and knowledge gained during the project. Rather it is a range of…

This paper presents a study on tattooing as a topic for chemistry education. The selection of the topic was inspired by a newly suggested framework, which focuses on the question of relevance of science education. The aim of this case was to get evidence on how topics selected based on the suggested model of relevance of science education affect…

This paper describes the development of a course module on sustainability issues and Education for Sustainable Development in German pre-service chemistry teacher education. The module was inspired by empirical research findings about the knowledge base of student teachers. It was created and cyclically refined using Participatory Action Research.…

This article reports the development and results of a project within the Comenius program to promote teachers' occupational well-being, in which Finnish, Irish, Italian, and German school communities participated between 2003 and 2006. The project made use of participatory action research, in which the occupational well-being of staff was…

This paper describes the development and assessment of a learning environment to support the transition of students from lower to upper secondary chemistry education in Germany. The learning environment centers on reviewing and expanding learners' prior chemistry knowledge in heterogeneous learning groups upon entering upper secondary education.…

Sustainability as a concept, though well understood in general terms, is often politically captured by interest groups and as such expressed through issues like concern for global climate change or the need to develop more efficient energy sources, to address regional, national or international priorities. Education for sustainability as a concept…