This theoretical paper proposes some pedagogical practices that may be applicable by chemical lecturers who teach in Chemistry teacher education courses. Those practices are based on three theoretical ideas: i) Johnstone’s triplet about the three levels of chemical knowledge (macroscopic, microscopic and symbolic) which imposes challenges due to the significance of chemical language, leading us to discuss ii) the importance of the verbal language in chemistry teaching-learning processes, and iii) in the role of investigative experiments for exploring students’ ideas and promote abstract thought. Those practices focuses on the relation of the chemical triplet with investigative experiments for promoting meanings’ negotiations between lecturer and his students by means of pedagogical mediations and discursive interactions. In this sense, some research contributions about chemical education are related with central ideas of the historical-cultural approach proposed by Vigotski and collaborators aiming to highlight the importance of chemical lecturers in chemistry teacher education courses.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate lecturers'actions and conceptions about pre-service teaching practices in chemistry. In this sense, it takes into account several theoretical references concerned with teacher education, which support the qualitative analysis of 18 interviews, gathered with 14 brazilian and 4 portuguese lecturers. Results reveal that the pre-service teaching practices in chemistry have been performed far from a technical approach, showing a paradigmatic rupture and presenting another logic related with teacher education in chemistry, which have improved the comprehension of the teachers' real practices, since these have been shaped by complex and unprescribed factors.

This article summarizes the main achievements of the Brazilian research in chemistry education in these 25 years of existence of the Brazilian Chemical Society and raises some prospective questions for the field. Six main events are described as the responsible ones for the development of research in chemistry teaching in Brazil. Valuable contributions of Brazilian researches are discussed and related with international trends in science education. Some perspectives for improving research in chemistry teaching in Brazil are also presented.