The Chemistry Education Research and Practice GRC is a premier, international scientific conference focused on advancing the frontiers of science through the presentation of cutting-edge and unpublished research, prioritizing time for discussion after each talk and fostering informal interactions among scientists of all career stages. The conference program includes a diverse range of speakers and discussion leaders from institutions and organizations worldwide, concentrating on the latest developments in the field. The conference is five days long and held in a remote location to increase the sense of camaraderie and create scientific communities, with lasting collaborations and friendships. In addition to premier talks, the conference has designated time for poster sessions from individuals of all career stages, and afternoon free time and communal meals allow for informal networking opportunities with leaders in the field.
Research and scholarly practice in chemistry education has never been more exciting. Our field has grown to the point where we can address major questions relating to determining the scope and content of chemistry curricula, discussing how we can approach learning and teaching of chemistry in a scholarly way, and considering meaningful forms of assessment of, and for, learning that are inclusive of all learners. The field has come a long way since the first GRC meeting for this topic in 2004, and now draws on an enormous body of well-established scholarly research and activity.
However, the equilibrium of sorts that we have collectively achieved has been subject to substantial perturbation in the last few years. The pandemic brought into focus ongoing work on the use of digital technologies in teaching chemistry and the purpose of laboratory work. Globally, the pandemic impacted students and teachers of chemistry in different ways, and highlighted the importance of the accessibility of materials we produce, and understanding how they are used by all learners. Much of our future thinking will be guided by the affordances available from research into the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning and how they are integrated into practice. As a community we are tasked with drawing on research in these domains, and deciding how they should progress in the immediate future.
Therefore, as 2025 approaches, we are clearly on the cusp of making some major decisions about our discipline, its future, and our focus in thinking about students’ learning and our teaching. This meeting intends to act as a prompt to draw on the latest research and scholarly activity to help us address the future paths where our discipline is headed. Much like the 2011 conference theme “Foundations and Frontiers”, our task will be to build on what we know in a way that leads us to explore the frontiers we are facing, and those yet to come. The meeting intends to open up opportunities for the community to work together to address this task in a coherent, sustainable, and accessible way.
The conference will focus specifically on pertinent themes relating to the above, with invited talks and participant posters aligning to one or more of the following:
- Methodological approaches to exploring student understanding and reasoning
- Reforming teaching approaches for a new era of chemistry education
- Refocussing on the role of laboratory teaching
- Individualised learning experiences and the role of artificial intelligence in supporting student learning
- Digital affordances in learning and teaching chemistry
- Epistemology in chemistry
- Global perspectives in chemistry education: sustainability, accessibility, and interdisciplinarity
