Frontiers of research in chemistry education for the benefit of chemistry teachers

An understanding of how students learn chemistry and what can support better chemistry learning is a research field that has continuously developed during the last 50 years. Chemistry education researchers study how different teaching strategies either support or inhibit chemistry learning. They study the role of models and the process of modeling in chemistry learning and teaching. They examine ways in which technology can be integrated into chemistry teaching to surmount the difficulties associated with learning abstract chemistry concepts, which was recently demonstrated during the Covid-19 pandemic. They look for assessment approaches that can guide teaching, reflect goals, and promote learning of scientific concepts and skills. These studies, which enhance our understanding of learning and teaching chemistry, should be part of chemistry teachers toolbox and support their professional development. However, these studies seldom reach teachers and therefore are usually not put into practice as much as they should. In this special issue we aim to bridge this gap and to bring the contemporary studies in chemistry education, which were presented in the 15 ECRICE 2022 conference, the European Conference on Research in Chemical Education, which was held at the Weizmann Institute of Science in July 2022, to the international community of chemistry teachers. This collection of papers presents six contemporary issues in chemistry education research: teaching strategies, models and modeling, technology for chemistry teaching and learning, development of student skills, personalization of chemistry teaching for including a variety of students in the chemistry classroom, and finally, assessment, whichis an essential component of any learning process.