Early-Career Teaching Award. College of Science, University of Arizona., 2004 Five Star Teaching Award, University of Arizona, 2006 Leicester and Kathryn Sherrill Creative Teaching Award. University of Arizona., 2007 Henry and Phyllis Koffl

Educational and Teacher Preparation

Chemical Education Research

The focal point of our work is the study, reflection, and improvement of chemistry education and science teacher preparation. In particular, we have directed our research at trying to characterize the conceptual frameworks and the patterns of reasoning used by chemistry students to answer questions and solve problems that require qualitative reasoning (e.g., classification, prediction, inference, comparison). We are also exploring how students' ideas and reasoning strategies evolve as they develop more expertise in the discipline (trajectories of expertise). These studies are of central importance not only to design learning progressions that foster meaningful learning but also to improve the preparation of future chemistry teachers through the development of their assessment thinking. Current areas of interest include:

Common sense reasoning in chemistry;

Learning progressions and trajectories of expertise in chemistry;

Development of teacher assessment reasoning.

L. McClary and V. Talanquer. College students' mental models of acids and acid strength. Journal of Research in Science Teaching. 48(4), 396 (2011). J. Maeyer and V. Talanquer. The role of heuristics in students thinking: Ranking of chemical substances. Science Education. 94(6), 963 (2010). V. Talanquer and J. Pollard. Let's teach how we think instead of what we know. Chemistry Education Research and Practice. 11(2) 74 (2010). V. Talanquer. On cognitive constraints and learning progressions: The case of structure of matter. International Journal of Science Education. 31(15) 2123 (2009). D. Tomanek, V. Talanquer, and I. Novodvorsky. What do science teachers consider when selecting formative assessment tasks? Journal of Research in Science Teaching. 45(10), 1113 (2008). V. Talanquer. Common sense chemistry: A model for understanding students' alternative conceptions. Journal of Chemical Education 83(5), 811 (2006).