Research shows that motivation is a critical precursor to students' science achievement. However, research on the topic yields ambiguous results in different cultural contexts. While the positive association between motivation and science achievement has been evidenced universally, the relatively predictive effect and strength of different…

In this study, we investigated the relationships between three pivotal factors that influence student performance, including opportunity-to-learn (OTL) factors, which included proximal indicators that represent science-specific learning opportunities, student motivation (propensity factor), and crucial student and teacher antecedent factors by…

This study focuses on the effectiveness of two types of teaching practices (i.e., inquiry-based and teacher-directed) on students' science achievement, an ongoing contentious issue in science education. It examined the direct and indirect effects of the two types of teaching practices, enjoyment of science, and students' science achievement with…

The paper reports about an empirical study investigating the relationship between scientific epistemological beliefs, intellectual risk-taking in science learning and science achievement of middle school students via path analysis. The sample was composed of 2119 middle school students enrolled in public schools. Nearly half of the students…

A hotly debated topic is the effectiveness of inquiry-based instructional practice in science classrooms on student achievement and motivation. Numerous studies based on multinational large-scale education data show such student-centered instructional practice positively led to students' motivational beliefs but was negatively associated with…

Self-efficacy and achievement goals represent two extensively researched motivational factors in education and have been related to numerous academic outcomes. However, little is known about how they relate to different types of problem-solving. Furthermore, while prior work has found these motivational factors are related, less work has examined…

Small-group discussion is a central component of 21st-century biology classrooms. Many factors shape these discussions and thus influence potential learning gains. This study examined how accuracy and idea consideration shaped small-group discussions in undergraduate biology labs (12 groups, M = 42.8 talk turns). To do this, we asked: (1) Is there…

As scientific literacy plays a contributing role in identifying, analysing, and solving environmental matters that our world is facing, there is growing consensus to mandate environmental matters in science classrooms following five decades of efforts in promoting environmental education. However, much remains unknown about the relationship…

The Ubiquitous-Physics (U-Physics) app was upgraded to help students in learning inclined plane concepts. The new version of U-Physics allows students to see the experimental data not only in a graphical representation but also in a tabular representation. U-Physics provides a whiteboard function to support data explanations. The study…

Over 40 years of research, concept maps have shown that they are beneficial for learning. However, much of this research has been conducted in laboratory settings. Although there are a few studies conducted in the classroom, there is little understanding of the instructional efficacy of using different types of concept maps. In a between-subjects…

The purpose of the present study was to examine whether parents' utility value perceptions predicted their children's utility value perceptions, demonstrating social contagion effects. We also examined whether utility value would predict achievement. This is a cross-sectional study that utilized data from a subsample of adolescent students from…

The aim of this study is to determine the predictive strength of the students' characteristics and their teaching-learning process on the physics course learning level. The variables were also examined according to the academic achievement levels. The study is a descriptive study in survey model. Purposive sampling method was used in the formation…

Previous work has looked at the relationship between high school preparation and student performance in calculus-based introductory mechanics (physics 1) courses. Here, we extend that work to look at performance in introductory calculus-based electricity and magnetism (physics 2), and we look at the significance of what college math courses have…

Student motivation is widely regarded as an essential prerequisite for learning and success. To learn more about biology student motivation and how it changes over time, pre/post-surveys were administered to a large introductory biology course during the fall of 2015. These pre/post-surveys contained motivation subscales from the Intrinsic…

This study aimed to examine the impacts of using Interactive Science Notebook on students' achievement, study habits, test anxiety levels, and attitudes towards physics. An interactive notebooking strategy was introduced to student teachers, who were enrolled to a local university. The participants comprised of 37 sophomore student teachers taking…