ICT belongs to modern life and is playing a growing role in education. For effective implementation of ICT in the classroom, teachers need to develop both positive attitudes and self-efficacy towards using these tools in educational settings. However, information measuring how positive such attitudes towards and how developed teachers' self-efficacy on the use of ICT in education are remains scarce. This study examines the development of prospective chemistry teachers' ICT-related attitudes and their corresponding self-efficacy. It focuses on secondary level chemistry pre-service teachers' attitudes and self-efficacy concerning the use of ICT in education in general, and in chemistry teaching in particular. Data was collected from pre-service teachers (n = 239) at different stages of their teacher education programs. The study describes the progression of domain-specific self-efficacy. It also investigates gender differences and highlights the influence of seminars on the use of ICT in science education.

Creativity has become an increasingly important competence in today's rapidly changing times, especially for school graduates who strive for pursuing a technical or scientific career. But creativity has not been integrated in the lessons or curricula of STEM subjects. To successfully integrate it in the classroom, it is important to investigate teachers’ and student teachers’ views on creativity. A study with seventeen German student teachers, studying chemistry on a Master's degree, is already carried out using a new research instrument that includes the creation of concept maps and filling out a questionnaire. The implementation of this study, the analysis and evaluation of the data and a comparison with literature data are described in this article. One result of this study is that the methods are an adequate approach to investigate views and knowledge about creativity. Regarding this, all of the students already had conceptions, views and an understanding about creativity in general and in the context of chemistry education, although they did not get input on the topic. Furthermore, almost all of the students had a positive attitude towards creativity and its integration in chemistry lessons. However, also uncertainties like the definition of creativity could be identified.

Currently not many people would doubt that computers play an essential role in both public and private life in many countries. However, somewhat surprisingly, evidence of computer use is difficult to find in German state schools although other countries have managed to implement computer-based teaching and learning in their schools. This paper attempts to understand the reasons for this phenomenon and to show that more research and development on computer-based teaching and learning should be done. It starts with some comments on the importance of computer-based learning, followed by a description of the development of ICT in education since the 1990s in Germany and the general situation at public schools. After focusing on the frame of educational policy in Germany, the situation in schools, including the person of the teacher, is then reflected upon and compared to the situation in other countries. Finally, current developments of computerbased learning in chemistry education in Germany are discussed and a frame of further research is proposed.

DIE ANALYSE DES Fortbildungsverhaltens und der Fortbildungswünsche von Chemielehrerinnen und ‐lehrern war Gegenstand einer im Jahr 2002 durchgeführten und vom Fonds der Chemischen Industrie geförderten empirischen Untersuchung der drei Chemielehrerfortbildungszentren Braunschweig, Dortmund und Frankfurt. In diesem Artikel werden die zentralen Ergebnisse der mittels Fragebögen und Interviews erhobenen Daten von über 2.000 Chemielehrerinnen und ‐ lehrern vorgestellt.

This paper discusses what chemistry students might see while working with animations found on the Internet and how these electronic illustrations can potentially interact to reinforce rather than resolve misconceptions about chemical principles that a student may possess. The Daniell voltaic cell serves as an example to illustrate the ways in which visual aids can be interpreted differently by different people. Some illustrations seem to represent concepts which have repeatedly been discussed on the base of science education research evidence as typical student misconceptions about chemical concepts. These visual aids seem to embody the actual misconceptions of chemical principles rather than explaining the scientifically accepted chemical concepts behind them. This paper discusses whether such computer simulations are potentially helpful for better understanding, or whether they actually increase the risk of strengthening students' incorrect interpretations or false ideas about chemical concepts. Implications for structuring and using animations are discussed.

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Large advances in technology in the last few years have made computers cheap and presentation technologies easily available in most secondary schools, at least in industrialised countries. Due to recent developments in software technology nearly anyone can create animations and visualisations. The Internet has helped to make the distribution of such graphic tools both wide and fast. Thus, using multimedia in science teaching is becoming more and more common. Today, integrating visualisations and animations from the Internet into the science classroom seems an obvious choice for enhancing science lessons. But are all of the animations offered on the Internet really helpful for promoting understanding? This chapter discusses what might occur while working with animations taken from the Internet and how these multimedia illustrations can potentially interact to reinforce rather than resolve students’ misconceptions about chemical principles. Daniell’s voltaic cell serves as a good example to illustrate the ways in which visual aids can be interpreted differently by experts and novices. The following discussion takes place in the form of an exaggerated example. It is meant to appear as a critical interjection making readers more aware of the myriad, often invisible, potential drawbacks which exist when first selecting promising-looking animated illustrations for classroom use.

The core of theory-driven chemistry education consists of the constant shift between the different representational domains of chemical thinking: the macroscopic, the sub-microscopic, and the symbolic domains. Because the sub-microscopic domain can neither be seen nor directly visualised, it requires specific forms of visualisation, i.e. pictures andanimations illustrating the model-based level of discrete particles, atoms, or molecular structures. This paper considers the central role visualisations play when learning about the model-based, sub-microscopic level, but it also reflects the dangers inherent in employing insufficiently examined, poorly considered, or even misleading visualisations. This is outlined using different examples taken from both textbooks for lower secondary chemistry education (for students aged 10 to 15) and from the internet. Implications for structuring and using sub-micro visualisations in chemistry education are also given.