The Department of Chemistry and Chemistry Education (KCHDCH) of the Faculty of Education, Charles University (PedF UK) provides in two-stage studies (bachelor's and master's) pre-service chemistry teachers training in the field of chemistry as a general-educational subject for lower- and upper-secondary school.
The bachelor's study contains both chemical and chemical-didactic basis including the system of initial practice. As part of the chemical basis, students are acquainted with general, inorganic, organic, analytical and physical chemistry and biochemistry. These subjects are followed by practical exercises, e.g. laboratory technology, laboratory exercises in inorganic chemistry, laboratory exercises in organic chemistry, etc. The chemical-didactic basis consists mainly of an introduction to didactics of chemistry, a school chemical experiment and other courses providing the orientation of studies to chemical education.
In the follow-up master's study, profiling subjects are oriented to general and special chemistry didactics, related experimental activities and other specialized subjects including continuous pedagogical practices at both lower- and upper-secondary schools. The chemical basis that students completed in the bachelor's study is supplemented in the follow-up master's study by courses extending their knowledge in the fields of inorganic and organic chemistry and other selected topics of contemporary chemistry.
KCHDCH also provides courses in school experimental activities for prospective kindergarten teachers and primary schools, a Chemistry and Society course designed primarily for non-chemical students and also offers a number of courses for further education of teachers of all grades (e.g. project method in chemistry/natural sciences teaching, inquiry-based chemistry education/natural sciences, including support for chemistry teaching, etc.). Last but not least, KCHDCH offers several courses taught in English for Science Students, Elementary Science Education, Elementary Chemistry Experiments, Intercultural Science Education, etc. These are offered to both domestic and international ERASMUS students in the ERASMUS programme.
Together with the Faculty of Science, Charles University, KCHDCH implements the doctoral study programme Didactics of Chemistry, in which experts are prepared for independent scientific, pedagogical and management work in chemical and in the wider context and science education.
Research activities of the staff at DCCE are accordingly focused on both fields: chemistry and chemistry education. Within the field of chemistry the staff participate in fundamental and applied research in collaboration with colleagues from University of Chemistry and Technology in Prague (UCT) (e.g. analysis of protein binders in artistic works, synthesis of chiral enantioselective catalysts) and with J. Heyrovsky Institute of Physical Chemistry, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic (e.g. electroanalytical chemistry and polarography). From the chemistry education research point of view topics of project-based education, inquiry-based science education, information and communication technology in chemistry education, scientific literacy and the art of performing a chemistry experiment belong among the main foci of the staff of the department.
