Chemistry Education in Portugal: The Emerging Picture from the Papers Published in the Journal of Chemical Education

• DOI: 10.22533/at.ed.2832328123

• Palavras-chave: -

• Keywords: General Public; Curriculum; Interdisciplinary/Multidisciplinary; Communication/Writing; Professional Development; Standards National/State

• Abstract: Several challenges and opportunities face chemistry education in the 21 st century with the growing role of new technologies and the globalization perspective. Manuscripts describing original and innovative strategies, either in the classroom or in the laboratory setting, are required and publishing in a top-tier journal, like the Journal of Chemical Education (JCE), is crucial to reach a large audience. This paper focuses on the development of chemistry education in Portugal in the 21 st century through a content analysis of the papers published in JCE from 2000 to 2018 by authors with Portuguese affiliation. Regarding contributions to JCE papers by country in the same period, Portugal ranks fourth among European countries and seventh worldwide corresponding to second in rank when considering country population (papers/million people). Papers involving laboratory experiments and other hands-on learning activities represent more than 50% of the published Portuguese authored manuscripts which covered a large audience, mainly at the undergraduate level, revealing an increased effort in laboratory instruction. Considering gender equality, the global number of men and women contributing to Portuguese affiliated publications in JCE is very similar (52% versus 48%, respectively) although there is only one woman in the top 5 most prolific authors. Overall, results reveal the constant and increasing effort of Portuguese affiliated authors to publish in JCE contributing to the recognition of chemistry education relevance.