The objective of the current study was to identify an effective learning environment for kindergarten students as they acquire an initial understanding of scientific inquiry activities (SIA) and a simple (idealized) scientific inquiry cycle (SIC). The study aimed to examine (a) the effects of instructional support and (b) the role of similarity…

Background: Inquiry-based instruction is a prominent teaching strategy in science education that is assumed to be an effective means to foster not only students' understanding of science content but also their procedural and epistemic knowledge concerning inquiry processes. Empirical studies have repeatedly shown that inquiry-related activities…

This study aims to look at research trends on inquiry and socioscientific in the last 2 decades from 2004 to 2023. The PRISMA method is a reference in determining inclusion and exclusion criteria, as many as 449 articles were synthesized using bibliometric analysis. The result synthesis refers to the distribution of articles per year, research…

This article describes the initiative to establish a European network for undergraduate research (UR). This began with national initiatives in Germany and the United Kingdom, dating back 10 to 20 years. A strong impetus was given by the European project on digital UR (2021-2023), which also was a response to COVID-19 and extended the possibilities…

The Community of Inquiry (CoI) Framework describes success factors for collaborative online-based learning. The CoI Survey is a validated instrument to measure these factors from the perspective of course participants. Until now, no validated translation of this Survey to German was available. The aim of this work was to translate the original…

Non-formal learning settings like out-of-school labs provide students with insights into authentic learning situations. For example, in physics, students are engaged in experimenting as an authentic method. However, increasing the authenticity in experimentation can lead to overwhelming demands and hinder concept development and does not even need…

Science education reform efforts have emphasized the incorporation of more authentic and meaningful scientific practices into formal learning environments. With this focus on practices, such as scientific modeling, a powerful tool for sense-making and reasoning, comes a need to observe and understand if and how it is actually occurring,…

Children and young people who come into conflict with the law tend to be disengaged with education and learning. This paper reports on research from an EU Erasmus+ project in Spain, Italy, Germany and the UK. The research focused on the impact of Authentic Inquiry (AI) on learners in custodial or youth justice settings and the impact on educators…

Inquiry-based out-of-school STEM learning environments, such as offerings from science centers, museums, and out-of-school laboratories, serve as an enrichment to classroom education in many countries. As there is an increasing number of such STEM learning environments in Germany and some other countries and a growing body of research worldwide,…

Online news literacy training has been so far insufficiently conducted and evaluated, and even less so with younger news consumers. Against the backdrop of online news cognitive processing, interventions against misinformation, and inquiry-based learning, we designed, conducted, and evaluated a pilot online news literacy training with 36…

Background Improving scientific reasoning and argumentation are central aims of science education. Because of their complex nature, self-regulation is important for successful scientific reasoning. This study provides a first attempt to investigate how scientific reasoning and self-regulation processes conjointly impact argumentation quality.…

Inquiry-based science instruction has been proposed as an optimal learning environment for language-integrated teaching. While its potential for developing both content knowledge and language skills has been shown for students with limited language proficiency, research focusing on mainstream classrooms has mainly considered domain-specific…

Approaches for inclusive science teaching currently tend to focus on only one dimension of diversity at a time. This neglects the fact that diversity is multidimensional in nature, and the consideration of only one dimension of diversity can yield inclusive practices with limited scope. Therefore, the goal of the project "Diversity in Science…

Student problems (preconceptions, errors, and learner-specific approaches) that arise when planning and conducting experiments are relevant for lesson planning and the further development of teaching practice overall. student problems are understood as a learning opportunity. So far, little attention has been paid to the relationships between…

Designing and interpreting controlled experiments are important inquiry skills addressed in many current science curricula. The relevant skills associated with the design and interpretation of controlled experiments are summarised under the term control-of-variables strategy (CVS). Research on elementary school students' CVS skills shows that they…