BEYOND PHILOSOPHICAL CONFUSION: ESTABLISHING THE ROLE OF PHILOSOPHY OF CHEMISTRY IN CHEMICAL EDUCATION RESEARCH

The paper outlines some perspectives from the relatively new field of philosophy of chemistry and explores the implications of these perspectives for chemical education research. The paper is theoretical in nature and uses the review of literature as a methodological approach to synthesise a research territory for the applications of philosophy of chemistry in chemical education. The discussion begins with contextualization of the status of philosophy of chemistry in chemical education in general. Subsequently, the potential contributions of philosophy of chemistry in chemical education research are outlined. The argument is presented that the clarification and elaboration of important philosophical themes such as relativism and positivism are only one aspect of how philosophy of chemistry relates to chemical education research. Other contributions include the insights philosophy of chemistry can offer about the epistemological, linguistic and ethical aspects of chemistry - themes that have profound implications for how teaching and learning of chemistry are structured at the level of the classroom as well as how teacher education and curriculum design can be improved.