Content knowledge (CK), pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) and, assessment knowledge (AK) are fundamental types of teachers’ knowledge. Second-career, pre-service chemistry teachers leave the industry and return to the Technion to study in the Views program to obtain a high school teaching certificate. Their background can potentially contribute to higher quality of science teaching and learning in general and of chemistry teaching in particular. We investigated how pre-service chemistry teachers’ knowledge develops as they are exposed to chemistry context-based learning, and what differences are there between pre- and in-service teachers’ knowledge types and their self-efficacy. The participants were 25 second-career pre-service teachers and 29 in-service chemistry teachers who served as a comparison group. The teachers’ professional growth was examined by assessing their CK, PCK, AK, and self-efficacy by using three questionnaires that included adapted scientific articles on energy, acid-base, and oxidation-reduction in the context of sustainability. Five expert chemistry teachers validated the questionnaires. We found that all three knowledge types of the pre-service teachers improved during the course and they became more aware of sustainable chemistry issues than the in-service teachers. The study contributes to chemistry education by narrowing the gap that exists in the literature between chemistry teachers’ PCK and AK on the one hand and self-efficacy on the other hand. We offer an assessment tool for identifying and quantifying teachers’ knowledge. We offer recommendations for science educators about the needs, strengths, and weaknesses of pre- and in-service teachers related to teaching sustainable chemistry.

Modeling and systems thinking skills, as well as scientific understanding, are necessary for comprehending complex, food-related processes. The aim of this research was to evaluate the effect of food-related learning units on graduate students’ systems thinking and modeling skills, as well as on their understanding of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) issues. In this research, six STEM experts constructed a conceptual model of the codfish tracking process using Object-Process Methodology. Next, 15 STEM graduate students, who are prospective teachers, participated in a graduate course, which includes four online units on food production processes based on their respective models. Research tools included an expert focus group, student assignments, and questionnaires. Modeling and scientific understanding rubrics were adapted and validated for analysis of the assignments. We found a significant difference in the scores of systems thinking and modeling skills between students with modeling background and those without. Based of students’ feedback along the course, learning in context of food and sustainability also contributed to developing these skills. The contribution is the combination of food production and conceptual models for developing STEM teachers’ systems thinking and modeling skills, and their scientific understanding of food processes and sustainability issues.

Sustainability has gained paramount importance in recent years, and scientists play a key role in the efforts to attain it. Chemistry teachers focusing on sustainability must educate future citizens, through effective learning that calls for daily student–teacher social interaction as well as ongoing exposure to everyday life events. Most online social media tools have been developed with the aim of maintaining, managing, and enhancing social interactions between people, and have great potential to raise science teachers’ awareness about important environmental issues. The participants in this study included pre-service and in-service science teachers from both the Jewish and Arab sectors in Israel, representing diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds. The study was designed to assess chemistry teachers’ behaviour and their awareness of sustainability issues. The research tool was an online questionnaire consisting of closed and open-ended items about the participants’ environmental knowledge, attitudes, and behaviour, as well as their habits regarding the social media. In this chapter we discuss the role of social media in raising awareness of, and interest in, sustainable developments, and examine how cultural diversity among participants affects their awareness of it.