Science education researchers and curriculum documents have advocated scientific inquiry for more than six decades; however, inconsistent findings concerning its effects on students' learning outcomes have been revealed in recent analyses of large-scale international assessment data (e.g., the Programme for International Student Assessment…

The advancement of technology has led to a growing interest in assessing scientific inquiry within digital platforms. This shift towards dynamic and interactive inquiry assessments enables researchers to investigate not only the accuracy of student responses ("product data") but also their steps and actions leading to those responses…

In this paper, we explored the scientific literacy of a general sample of the Slovak adult population and examined factors that might help or inhibit scientific reasoning, namely the content of the problems. In doing so, we also verified the assumption that when faced with real-life scientific problems, people do not necessarily apply…

The effect of school closures in the spring of 2020 on the math, science, and reading skills of secondary school students in Poland is estimated. The COVID-19-induced school closures lasted 26 weeks in Poland, one of Europe's longest periods of shutdown. Comparison of the learning outcomes with pre- and post-COVID-19 samples shows that the…

Written instructions seldom need to be read when playing videogames. Instead, gaming often involves early information foraging and expansive exploration behaviors. We use data from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) to explore whether students who regularly play videogames (daily gamers) adopt behaviors that are typical of…

Background: The recommendation from national documents and reports to promote inquiry-related science activities has not been supported by recent studies, which have found the overall frequency of inquiry activities to be negatively associated with student learning outcomes. This study was inspired by such conflicting reports and aimed to clarify…

Previous research has demonstrated the potential of examining log-file data from computer-based assessments to understand student interactions with complex inquiry tasks. Rather than solely providing information about what has been achieved or the accuracy of student responses ("product data"), students' log files offer additional…

In this paper, we present the design of a teacher training sequence, emphasizing supporting pre-service teachers to reflect on their knowledge, skills, and emotions experienced when engaging in scientific practices. We consider such reflections being crucial in initial teacher training because they can make pre-service teachers aware of the…

Shanghai is dubbed as a role model for science and mathematics education as its fifteen-year-olds have been outperforming all in the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) since 2009. Shanghai's achievements are attributed to its interest in adopting innovative international trends in education and equally effectively implementing…

Any society needs more scientifically literate citizens even if they do not follow a career in science. In the 2015 PISA assessment, Turkey ranked 34th among 35 OECD countries based on science literacy scores. The relatively unsuccessful results of Turkey from international level examinations like PISA has necessitated the questioning of various…

This research compared how the scientific literacy-related goals of the current Chinese and Finnish national science curricula at primary school level are actualised using a revised Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) scientific literacy framework in the content analysis of the curricula. The content of the curricula focuses…

This study focuses on the teachers' predictions of the students' performances -- in particular the middle-low achievers -- while solving tasks testing inquiry competencies. The tasks come from PISA science. More specifically we study science teachers' predictions for several aspects: levels of difficulty of the tasks, the potential sources of…

Drawing on a sociocultural perspective on educational assessment the empirical examples of Margareta Serder and Anders Jakobsson serve as a starting point for a critical analysis of PISA and the image of science education it perpetuates. While PISA claims to neutrally measure competencies relevant to science education, I argue that the test…

The purpose of this research is to examine assessment and evaluation activities of secondary school 9th and 10th grade physics textbooks in Turkey according to the revised Bloom Taxonomy and PISA science literacy competence levels. In this study document review, a qualitative research method was used. Within the scope of the study, assessment…

The education system in Qatar comprises of both private schools, which receive money through student fees, and public schools, which are fully government-funded. In the mid-2000s, Qatar started its transition towards an independent school model with the aim of eventually converting all public schools into government-supported independent schools.…