Despite the tremendous efforts which have been made over the last few years, inquiry-based learning (IBL) has not become an established practice in science education yet. Even if teachers consider IBL an important and valuable approach, they still refrain from implementing it in their own science classes. Research findings suggest that the teachers’ beliefs and attitudes have a crucial influence on their classroom practice. Only if they are compatible with the approach of IBL, the teachers will be willing to implement IBL in their own classes. This article demonstrates how the beliefs and attitudes of three Austrian chemistry teachers changed over the period of a 9-monthly professional development program (PDP). In order to ascertain their beliefs and attitudes regarding IBL previous to and after the PDP, we conducted a group discussion and three individual interviews. The statements from both dates were analyzed using a qualitative content analysis and indicate substantial changes concerning the teachers’ beliefs about the efficacy, capability and practicability of IBL. After participating in the PDP, the teachers took a more positive attitude regarding both IBL in general and its implementation. Considering the findings from this study, we formulate implications for designing PDP at the end.

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Chemistry teaching and learning bears some subject-specific challenges. For example, explanations and considerations of chemical phenomena drawing on the macroscopic, the sub-microscopic and the representational level. In this paper, we focus on the topic ‘acids and bases’ where the confusion of these levels leads to numerous misconceptions among learners. One possible source of these problems are textbooks, which can have an important impact on the quality of teaching and learning. To identify scientific and didactical appropriate textbooks for lower secondary classes, we draw on the work of Roseman, J. E., Stern, L. & Koppal, M. (2010), who developed an instrument to analyse textbooks using a conceptual coherence map. To develop our topic-specific instrument, big ideas of the topic were formulated, arranged in a conceptual coherence map, and set in relation with each other. Then we development a coding manual that describes precisely how to apply the different categories while analysing textbooks. The process described is part of a design-based research project with the aim to contribute to better chemistry teaching and learning. We give insight into the process of developing this instrument for analysing chemistry textbooks. Furthermore, it presents some examples for problematic representations from textbooks in the field of ‘acids and bases’.

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