Chemistry education research (CER) is the scientific study of the teaching and learning of chemistry. Chemical education researchers aim to improve student learning, retention, and belonging in the field of chemistry by applying concepts from educational, cognitive, and social psychology to chemistry learning environments. CER is conducted both in the field (i.e., in a classroom setting) and in controlled laboratory settings. Topics studied in CER are wide ranging. Cognitive areas of research focus on students internal learning processes, such as the impact of specific teaching methods (e.g., active learning, collaborative group work) on student learning, the impact of misconceptions on student learning and how to correct these misconceptions, how to improve student problem solving in STEM, how to improve long-term retention and transfer of learning across chemistry courses, and the development of students’ metacognitive skills. Social psychological areas of research consider the impacts of the social setting and learning environment on students’ experiences in chemistry, such as students’ social belonging, the inclusivity of the course, or the effects of teaching methods on different demographics of students. In addition to studying outcomes for students, chemistry education researchers also develop and validate instruments, such as assessments, surveys, observation protocols, to measure different variables of interest (e.g., understanding, belonging, metacognition) as well as analytical methodologies (i.e., statistical methods) for assessing relationships between measured variables.

CER uses both quantitative and qualitative methods depending on the research questions being asked. In the quantitative studies, numerical data are analyzed using a variety of statistical methods, and often examine a comparison of knowledge, skills, performance, and affective measures. However, it is often difficult to fully understand human behaviors and experiences with quantitative methods, alone. Therefore, researchers also use qualitative methods to provide insight into underlying meanings and patterns in the data that often cannot be determined by quantitative methods. Qualitative data can include interviews, focus groups, responses to opened-ended survey questions, reflections, observations, etc. Quantitative methods are useful for detecting and modeling patterns in students’ outcomes (e.g., How do hours studied before an exam impact students’ exam grades?) whereas qualitative methods are useful for establishing a theory of how and why patterns are observed (e.g., What are students doing during their study hours that leads to better exam performance?). Often, quantitative and qualitative methods are coupled to best understand the collected data. Mixed-methods studies are those that combine quantitative and qualitative methods and are common in CER.

Teaching and learning, particularly in large classroom settings, are remarkably complex social and cognitive activities, leading to a broad range of research questions and types of studies being conducted in CER. Consider a single teacher in a classroom with 100 students. Each student has a unique, individual experience with the teacher, with their fellow classmates, with the course content, and with their own identity as part of the broader science community. Even in this highly simplified scenario, there are countless social and psychological variables and interactions that shape each students’ experience and effect their performance, retention, and belonging in chemistry and STEM. Research in this setting must consider the content of the course (chemistry), the internal, cognitive and psychological processes of the students, and the social influences of the people and culture of the course and broader science community. Hence, CER is inherently an interdisciplinary field integrating ideas and methodologies from fields such as chemistry, psychology, statistics, sociology, and education (learning sciences). To address these complex, interdisciplinary problems, researchers in the CER program at the University of Utah work collaboratively with chemistry and other STEM instructors, researchers in physics education, experts in psychology (cognitive and social), the university’s Center for Science and Mathematics Excellence (CSME), and the university’s College of Education.