Iztok Devetak
Dr Iztok Devetak is a full professor of Chemistry in Education at the Faculty of Education at UL, where he also graduated as a professor of biology and chemistry and was awarded a PhD in Chemistry Education in 2005. He has been working at the University of Ljubljana since 1997.
He continued his postdoctoral training in 2009 as a Fulbright Scholar at the Catholic University of America, Department of Chemistry, in the Chemistry Education Research Group led by the renowned researcher Prof Dr Diane M. Bunce.
His research interests lie in the teaching and learning of chemistry. He examines the implementation of three levels of presentation of chemistry concepts in the chemistry classroom in relation to the impact of students' skills, motivation and attitudes on the active learning of chemistry, explores misconceptions about environmental chemistry and green chemistry and the importance of teaching chemistry in context. He also investigates the development of some health competences of teachers. He is co-author of science and chemistry textbooks for primary, secondary and university students.
He has published numerous scientific articles in major international journals and parts of monographs published by foreign publishers. He is a member of editorial boards and reviewer for a number of important journals in the field of chemistry and science education. He was editor of the scientific monograph Learning with understanding in the chemistry classroom, published by Springer. He is editor-in-chief and Editor-in-Chief of the CEPS Journal, a scientific journal published by the UL Faculty of Education and indexed by Scopus.
Since 2012, he has been Head of the Department of Biology, Chemistry and Home Economics and Head of the Chair of Chemistry and Chemical Education. Since 2015 he has been the Chairman of the Commission for Chemistry Education of the Slovenian Chemical Society and since 2019 Vice-Chairman for Eastern Europe of the Section for Chemistry Education of the European Chemical Society (EuChemS). Since 2018, he has been Chairman of the Subject Committee for Chemistry for the National Knowledge Tests at the Republican Examination Centre.