Four models of contexts that are used or may be used in different forms in chemical education were discussed by Gilbert (2006). The first model described in the paper is
‘context as the direct application of concepts’, which infers a one-directional relationship between the concept and the application. Therefore, it directly focuses on the abstract learning of a specific language. The second model uses ‘context as reciprocity between concepts and applications’. In view of this model, the concepts and the applications interactively affect to each other. The third model, which employs ‘context as provided by personal mental activity’, includes situations, contexts, narratives, a focal event and the intra-personal talk invoking background information.
Because the social dimension of interaction within a community is missing, this model seems more appropriate for successful chemistry education. The last model exploits ‘context as the social circumstances’, which means that the social aspects of the context cannot be underestimated. Since the last model fits the set of criteria of successful chemistry education explained by Gilbert (2006), it may be more effective than the other models. However, Gilbert (2006) strongly suggests using Van den Akker’s (1998) comprehensive model comprising of six elements for good chemistry education: (1) Theideal curriculum focuses on how the curriculum is conceived and on how the contexts are related to chemical concepts in the curriculum, (2) The formal curriculum refers to the written context-based cur-riculum incorporating the entire elements of good chem-istry education, (3) The perceived curriculum means interpretation of its users and teachers, thus, teachers’ beliefs play a significant role in this interpretation, (4) The operational curriculum implies the actual process of teaching and learning (i.e. rapid feedback given by an evaluation team), (5) Theexperientialcurriculum contains learning experiences perceived by learners and (6) The attainedcurriculum deals with the learning outcomes of the learners, and is assessed in regard to its consistency or compatibility with the ideal curriculum methods.