Abstract The learning trajectory is the trace of students' learning process under the influence of specific teaching activities, which is beneficial for teachers to grasp the students' learning process and to achieve student-centered teaching. In this paper, based on related literatures, learning trajectory is defined as the total state of students' cognitive, emotional, motivation in key events caused by teaching, and then extract three features of the learning trajectory, namely specificity, sequence, and structure; afterwards, research areas such as exploring learning trajectories, teaching and evaluation, and teacher professional development are introduced. The research value of learning trajectory is discussed from two aspects of teaching design and practice, which provides some references for chemical education researchers to understand the value of this field.
