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Twenty-first-century teaching focuses on the standards of teaching practice to improve instruction and learning outcomes. Teachers as the key figures in school are called upon to reflect on their instructional practices and exemplify the highest standard for teaching grounded in global best practices. This study aimed to assess the teachers' instructional practices and identify challenges before and during the COVID-19 pandemic to effectively implement instructional strategies in the teaching of chemistry. The respondents were composed of 107 public Junior High School chemistry teachers in the 8th district of Cavite. The mixed-method sequential explanatory research design was used. Quantitative data were collected using the Science Instructional Practices Survey and the questionnaire on the teachers' perceptions of emergency remote teaching, while qualitative data were gathered utilizing focus group discussions, classroom observations, and virtual interviews. The findings of the study showed that chemistry teachers' instructional practices include prior knowledge and traditional instruction. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, four major themes emerged as challenges to teachers in effectively implementing various instructional strategies: learner characteristics, teacher competency, the language of instruction, and classroom management practices. Five themes were identified as challenges to teachers during the pandemic, namely, appropriate assessment strategy, feedback mechanism, technology usage and availability, parental involvement, and appropriate teaching-learning materials. The findings in this study provided valuable inputs in the development of an innovative instructional model for designing a chemistry lesson.

The present study investigated pre-service chemistry teachers' problem solving strategies and alternative conceptions in solving stoichiometric problems and later on formulate a teaching framework based from the result of the study. The pre-service chemistry teachers were given four stoichiometric problems with increasing complexity and they need to write the process that they undertake to solve the problem. The study found out that the most prominent strategy among pre-service chemistry teachers is the mole method, which is algorithmic by nature. Very few of them used the proportionality method and none made use of the logical method. Alternative conception noted among the pre-service chemistry teachers is that some of them rely on Avogadro's number in converting between moles with a given mass. The results indicate that these pre-service chemistry teachers has the tendency to teach stoichiometry using the mole method only and that they might carry on the alternative conception about Avogadro's number as they start their teaching career. It is therefore suggested that the teaching of stoichiometry to pre-service chemistry teachers should not be confined to demonstration as they will imitate such technique when they are already a full pledged chemistry teacher. They should be involved in the process of thinking of ways to solve the stoichiometric problem in such a way that it will help them become independent thinkers and be responsible for their own learning by developing metacognitive and critical thinking strategies.