In an ever-changing world, it is impossible for individuals to acquire all existing knowledge, just as it is challenging to predict which knowledge will be necessary for the future. The critical factor here is to concretize or make raw knowledge useful. Therefore, it has become imperative to develop students' abilities to analyze and utilize…

Self-regulated learning (SRL), which involves the regulation of cognitive, affective, metacognitive, and motivational processes, is an important construct for analyzing effective student learning in open-ended learning environments (OELEs). Novice K-12 students working on complex learning tasks in OELEs often engage in sub-optimal use of SRL…

During the COVID-19 global pandemic students have been exposed to a multitude of stressors and disruptions to their every-day life. Mindfulness has been described in research as one tool to address anxiety and increase attention in young adolescent students (Goldin et al., 2008). This study's purpose was to understand the ways my seventh-grade…

This study examines the effect of teaching with the STEM Cycline of the 'Force and Energy' unit on students' creativity, metacognitive awareness, and academic achievement. The nonequivalent control group design, one of the quasi-experimental models, was used in the study. The study included 54 seventh-grade students studying at a public school in…

This qualitative action research study examines how middle and high school STEM teachers create and implement lessons that connect concepts to the real-world and develop student metacognition. The researcher collected data through interviews, focus groups, document analysis, and survey questions. Participants from vocational, private, and…

Critical perspectives of science (CPS) elucidates science as a human endeavor that not only embodies the rigorous process of knowledge construction but also reflects the inherent flaws arising from unequal and unjust power relations among humans and between humans and nature. Science teachers need opportunities for self-examination to learn CPS…

Teaching with analogies is an important pedagogy that helps learners construct abstract conceptions through reasoning with something familiar. Heat concepts were chosen for this study because they have an intangible nature and involve complex mechanisms that often challenge school-aged learners. Learning this kind of complex concept with analogies…

As schools continue to focus on outcome-based instructional practices, less emphasis is placed on the creativity and reasoning necessary for students to become effective critical thinkers. As a result, students struggle to demonstrate creative problem-solving skills in the classroom. This study examines how the facilitation of an instructional…

Physics teaching should facilitate students to acquire knowledge, increase metacognitive awareness and motivation for learning physics. The implementation of cooperative learning could be useful for improving teaching. The aim of this research was to examine the effect of cooperative learning (specifically the jigsaw technique) on students'…

Recent research underscores the importance of inquiry learning for effective science education. Inquiry learning involves self-regulated learning (SRL), for example when students conduct investigations. Teachers face challenges in orchestrating and tracking student learning in such instruction; making it hard to adequately support students. Using…

The main aim of this study was to explore the effect of 7E instructional model with metacognitive scaffolding and gender on 9th grade students' conceptual understanding of human biology concepts and misconceptions. The research method was a quantitative research method and the research design was quasi-experimental research design with pre-test --…

Design-based learning has been recognized by educational scholars as the key approach to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education at K-12 levels. However, it is unclear whether, and which dimensions of, design thinking mindsets support the conceptual learning of science. This quasi-experimental study aims to explore 37…

Engaging students in inquiry is a key component in order to fulfill essential goals in science education. To achieve successful engagement in inquiry process, students need to feel competent and autonomous in spite of the cognitive and mental challenges the process entails. The study focuses on the "problematizing" mechanisms of…

The learning environment plays a crucial role in the promotion of school science. Redesigning the science classroom into a metacognitive learning environment is imperative in developing students' 21st century skills -- communication, collaboration, critical thinking and creative thinking. In this study, we exposed the students to a variety of…

Troubleshooting activities require students to diagnose teacher-crafted erroneous examples by detecting and explaining the conceptual errors driving them. In a previous study, the author tested whether diagnosing erroneous examples and then scoring them using a rubric that contained the related worked examples, a step-by-step strategy to solve a…