Oracy in Chemistry Education : Using Talk to Think, Learn, and Do Chemistry

Oracy in Chemistry Education demonstrates how research-informed uses of talk can enhance learning, reasoning, and participation across chemistry education.

Spoken language is central to how chemistry is learned, practised, and understood, yet its role remains insufficiently theorised within chemistry education. Where abstract concepts, specialised representations, and material practice converge, oracy shapes how learners make meaning and how disciplinary knowledge, participation, and identity are formed. Like reading and writing, it is fundamental to educational access and success. Oracy in Chemistry Education offers a systematic account of how purposeful talk supports thinking, learning, and doing chemistry across secondary and tertiary education. Drawing on sociocultural theory and chemistry education research, the book positions oracy not as an instructional add-on but as a central mediating process through which conceptual understanding, practical reasoning, argumentation, and inclusion develop. By integrating theory, empirical research, and professional practice, it shows how oracy-rich pedagogies can systematically structure dialogue, enabling shared reasoning and disciplinary sense-making. Through carefully developed pedagogical principles, task designs, and classroom illustrations, the book demonstrates how talk can be deliberately planned and productively scaffolded in whole-class teaching, small-group work, and laboratory activity. Spanning Levels 2 to 8, it addresses the needs of compulsory and higher education while maintaining a sustained focus on equitable participation in chemistry learning. Combining rigorous scholarship with practical insight, this volume will be of interest to chemistry teachers, teacher educators, postgraduate students, and chemistry education researchers seeking to strengthen oracy as a resource for meaningful and inclusive chemistry education.