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2.3. Description of the design process – developing holistic and inquiry-based 
ESD in chemistry 
The research was oriented towards understanding, improving and utilising the design context 
and the theory. As is typical for a design research project, this process of design was 
interventional, iterative and it occurred in a real world setting.
The interventional and cyclic design process contributed to the selection of the design 
methodologies and to the development of new design frameworks (see Section 5.3.) (Edelson, 
2002; Van den Akker et al., 2006). A holistic view was cast on the opportunities and 
challenges of the research problem. That is why this dissertation took a methodological 
triangulation approach, utilising mixed methods to overcome the broad and complex problem 
setting. The mixed methods research setting is typical for social sciences. It enabled analysing 
the main research question at the levels of an individual, a group and a society. (Cohen et al., 
2007) 
The design framework iteratively evolved during the cyclic design process (see Section 4.). 
(Edelson, 2002). The cyclic design process has similarities with participatory action research 
(Eilks & Ralle, 2002), as in both of them the key objective is to change the practices in 
schools. In design research, the form of the report is more detailed. The advantage of design 
research is that the researcher is more involved in the schools’ practices together with the 
teachers (Cohen et al., 2007). When the teachers needed support, the researcher attended the 
lessons or offered them virtual online guidance. 
The main elements of this design research project are illustrated in Figure 2. The development 
process was based on theoretical problem analysis and on the three empirical case studies: one 
focusing on the teachers’ concepts and two studies focusing on the students’ perspectives.
The theoretical problem analysis started with an analysis of the needs stemming from relevant 
literature, schoolbooks and curricula (Juntunen, 2011). The theoretical problem analysis 
focused on the following contexts of chemistry education: green chemistry, SSI, ESD and 
LCA. The pedagogical methods in focus were socio-constructivism, IBL and argumentation. 

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Together the contexts and pedagogies aimed to promote the cross-curricular skills of 
environmental literacy, societal co-operation, action competence and systems thinking. 
During the case study involving the teachers, four in-service training courses were organised, 
because the inclusion of life-cycle thinking into chemistry education using IBL seemed to be 
a new approach for teachers. A team of researchers developed the first framework for the in-
service training course. The framework continuously evolved as experience was gained on the 
needs of the teachers. The teachers preferred in-service training courses lasting no more than 
1–2 days. Their commitments caused minor challenges as there were teachers who were too 
busy to hand in their mental concepts about the inquiry-based teaching of LCA. However, the 
course was still functional with regard to its key elements: discussion, collaborative tasks and 
theme lectures. During the design process, it was observed that the chemistry teachers 
recognised similar challenges as educational research publications have done: the most 
common approaches to chemistry education in schools are still lacking student-centred 
learning methods and socio-scientific sustainability themes. The IBL methods were chosen as 
an approach to product life-cycle issues, as they have been recognised to support students’ 
interest in studying science (see, e.g., Colburn, 2000; Minner, Levy & Century, 2010).