What is Chemistry education?
[[File:MIT Industrial Chemistry Lab.gif|thumb|right|MIT Industrial Chemistry Lab 1893]] '''Chemistry education''' is the study of the [[teaching]] and learning of [[chemistry]]. Topics in chemistry education include understanding how students learn chemistry and how best to teach chemistry. [[wikt:researcher|Researcher]]s in chemistry education try to improve learning results by improving teaching methods and training chemistry teachers. Researchers study many teaching [[wikt:mode|mode]]s, including: classroom lecture, [[demonstration]]s, and laboratory activities. There is a world-wide shortage of chemistry teachers.{{fact|date=June 2013}} This is because people with science training can get jobs that pay more outside of teaching. It is hard to keep science teachers. More than 45,000 math and science teachers left teaching in the [[United States]] just after the 1999–2000 school year.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nsta.org/publications/news/story.aspx?id=53821|title=Teaching science in the 21st century: the science and mathematics teacher shortage: fact and myth|date=April 2007|first=Richard M.|last=Ingersoll|publisher=National Science Teachers Association|access-date=November 25, 2011|archive-date=January 23, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120123091843/http://www.nsta.org/publications/news/story.aspx?id=53821|url-status=dead}}</ref> == Overview == [[File:Old_Laboratory_of_Physical_Chemistry_-_geograph.org.uk_-_631833.jpg|thumb|left|Old Laboratory of Physical Chemistry, Cambridge England]] There are several different ways of thinking about chemistry education. One is a ''practitioner’s perspective''. The people who teach chemistry [[wikt:define|define]] chemistry education by their actions. Another is defined by a self-identified group of ''chemical educators'' (faculty members and instructors who focus on teaching rather than focus on chemical research). Dr. Robert L. Lichter, then-Executive Director of the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation, speaking in a plenary session at the 16th Bienni