Teachers’ ability to reflect on teaching is one of the basic attributes that enhances quality of their instruction. However, it cannot be assumed that teacher students will be equipped with advanced/professional competences for writing reflections without this aspect being developed during their pre-service training. One of the possible opportunities to explore this area are courses focused on the concept of professional vision which appears in pedagogical literature in terms of students’ ability to reflect on observed lessons. The aim of this contribution was to describe the initial competencies of pre-service chemistry teachers (N=24) in observing (video) lesson and their ability to determine critical moments and design their alterations before entering an Observation Practice course which is focused on forming their professional vision, i.e. their ability to notice key aspects of educational process. For the analysis of the written reflections, a modified version of Sherin and van Es’ (2009) methodology (coding into information units focused on the actor,aspects of PCK and depth of annotation, analysis and alteration) was used. The results show that student-teachers focus primarily on teachers as actor in teaching and that they do not pay enough attention to the subject side of the lesson when writing a reflection. At the same time, they are also unable to find proper alternatives in case of malfunctioning education.

Ability to adequately analyze educational situations is essential not only for (pre-service) teachers’ occupational decisions, but also for their own professional development. This study represents an evaluation of the observation practice aimed at pre-service chemistry teachers’ (N = 12) professional vision development. They attended chemistry classes in schools, discussed them in a group and independently wrote their reflections. The effect on the professional vision was evaluated using a self-efficacy questionnaire, lesson reflections analyses and semi-structured interviews. The results showed that pre-service teachers significantly overestimated their ability to reflect on lessons, struggled with lesson analyses, failed to describe and analyze chemistry-specific content in contrast with their significant improvement in describing student-teacher interaction and teacher’s activity – all with medium to large effect. Although observation practice deepened their ability to notice, pre-service teachers did not change attention to individual lesson’s aspects. Lesson observation therefore seems to be a suitable means of professional vision development from the richness of observed phenomena’s point of view, as well as students’ self-efficacy improvement, however more research in several aspects is needed to further inform (pre-service) teacher training practice. Key words: ability to notice, learning situations reflection, pre-service chemistry teacher, professional vision, teacher self-efficacy

This research follows the previous study examining the effect of chemistry education on students’ perception and understanding to the nature of chemistry (NoC) as well as their attitudes towards it as a school subject. Grade 9 students (N = 282) at the end of their compulsory schooling were given a set of open-ended questions focused on their understanding to NoC, perception of chemistry topics’ importance, topics the students found interesting and their evaluation of chemistry as a school subject. The answers were analysed using the open coding approach. It is possible to conclude most of the students do not have a clear idea about the nature of chemistry. Students assess chemistry as a school subject in the middle of the 5 point Likert scale. The results of this research offer the background for a more complex analysis of effects influencing students’s conception of chemistry and its subject matter. Keywords: chemistry education, education effectiveness, interest in science, students’ attitudes.