A contribution to the understanding of the relevance of chemistry teaching

'Relevance' is a frequently used term regarding science education. In many cases, it is suggested to make science education in general, and chemistry education in particular, more relevant or to better clarify the relevance of science education to the learner. Justification is given by many studies reporting a perceived irrelevance of chemistry education among secondary school students. But what do we mean when the term relevance is used in connection to chemistry education? Derived from the literature, this paper discusses the different meanings of the term relevance and suggests a definition as well as a model for its understanding. The paper reports a first contribution for validating the model by a focus group study with student teachers and teachers. Overall, the model showed a good fitting. The study also allows insights into weighting the different dimensions of relevance of science education among prospective and experienced chemistry teachers.