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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 [PISA]). This has evoked considerable concern given the significant role that inquiry plays in science education. To unpack the complex influence of inquiry on science achievement, this study used the PISA 2015 data from eight Western or East Asian regions to explore the effects of inquiry on students' science achievement and the mediation of attitudes toward science. The results indicated that despite the negative effects that the investigation aspect of inquiry had on science achievement, the explanation aspect of inquiry had positive effects on science achievement for the Western, East Asian, and whole samples. When all of the effects of both the investigation and explanation aspects were integrated, the overall influence of inquiry on students' science achievement was found to be positive for the whole and East Asian samples and slightly negative for the Western sample. This study highlights the necessity of considering different facets of inquiry and different types of effects when investigating the effects of inquiry on science achievement and achieving a better balance between the investigation and explanation processes when implementing inquiry in school classrooms.

Online peer assessment (OPA) has been increasingly adopted to develop students' higher-order thinking (HOT). However, there has not been a synthesis of research findings on its effects. To fill this gap, 17 papers (published from 2000 to 2022) that reported either a comparison between a group using OPA (n = 7; k = 22) and a control group or a pre-post comparison (n = 10; k = 17) were reviewed in this meta-analysis. The overall effect of OPA on HOT was significant (g = 0.76). Furthermore, OPA exerted more significant effects on convergent HOT (eg, critical thinking, reasoning and reflective thinking; g = 0.97) than on divergent HOT (eg, creativity and problem-solving; g = 0.38). Reciprocal roles and anonymity were found to positively moderate the impacts of OPA on HOT, although their moderating effects were not statistically significant because of small sample size of studies in the analysis. The results of the meta-analysis reinforce the arguments for regarding OPA as a powerful learning tool to facilitate students' HOT development and reveal important factors that should be considered when adopting OPA to enhance students' HOT.

Integrated STEM education has been the focus of recent curriculum reforms worldwide. Learning through design is a distinctive and significant approach to achieving STEM integration. Although studies have investigated various outcomes of design-based STEM learning, little has been done to examine its influence on two significant learning outcomes--STEM creativity and epistemic beliefs, especially in the context of primary education. In this study, we investigated the effects of a 6-month design-based STEM learning event (in which the application of information technologies was required) on 155 upper primary students' STEM creativity and epistemic beliefs. The results showed (i) a significant improvement in the fluency and flexibility dimensions of STEM creativity, (ii) a significant decrease in the source, certainty, and justification dimensions of epistemic beliefs, and (iii) no statistically significant change in the originality dimension of STEM creativity or the complexity dimension of epistemic beliefs. Moreover, we found significant and negative correlations between STEM creativity and the source, certainty, and justification dimensions of epistemic beliefs, but a significant and positive correlation between STEM creativity and the complexity dimension of epistemic beliefs. The findings of this study generate additional evidence to support design-based learning as a meaningful and feasible approach to achieving STEM integration in primary schools. Suggestions are made on how to design and implement integrated STEM education in primary schools.

Developing students' self-regulated learning (SRL) is crucial for nurturing the life-long learners needed in modern and future society. This study adopted structural equation modelling to explore the relationships among self-regulatory climate, group regulation in project-based learning (PBL) and individual regulatory ability. The results indicate that (i) group regulation has a significant positive effect on SRL ability; (ii) self-regulatory climate (i.e. academic emphasis and teacher trust in students) have significant positive effects on both group regulation and SRL ability; and (iii) student trust in teachers has a negative effect on group regulation and a positive effect on SRL ability. A combination of three approaches (i.e., the explicit, implicit and immersion) is recommended to generate convergent forces to efficiently cultivate self-regulatory learners.

Scientific reasoning ability (SRA) is widely recognized as an essential goal for science education. There is much discussion on the design and development of assessment frameworks as viable tools to foster SRA. However, established assessments mostly focus on the level of students reasoning attainment. Student ability to use evidence to support reasoning is not adequately addressed and evaluated. In this study, the 6-level SRA assessment framework was conceptualized and validated iteratively via synthesizing literature and a Delphi study. Guided by the framework, an SRA assessment tool adopting and adapting PISA test items and self-created items was developed and administered to 593 secondary students (including 318 8th Graders and 275 9th Graders) in mainland China. Pearson correlation analysis of SRA assessment score and their scores in scientific reasoning provided criterion-related validation for the former (Pearson correlation = 0.527). Rasch analysis conducted further confirmed the validity and reliability of the SRA test and the assessment framework. Combing quantitative and qualitative methods, the study provides a valid and reliable analytical framework of SRA. It can inform the design of SRA assessments in various science education contexts for diversified audiences.

In learning environments research, limited attention has been paid to the effects of the family environment on student thinking. This study constructed a five-dimension survey of the family environment, based on previous studies of the classroom learning environment, and used it to compare the effects of the family environment and the classroom learning environment associated with an interdisciplinary course (i.e., Liberal Studies) on the critical thinking disposition of 2189 secondary students in Hong Kong. Stepwise regression revealed that: the overall effects of the classroom learning environment of Liberal Studies on critical thinking disposition were greater than those of the family environment; the content-oriented dimensions of both environments were stronger predictors of critical thinking disposition than the relationship-oriented dimensions of both environments; and the effect of the dimension of challenging task on critical thinking disposition was stronger than that of other pedagogy-oriented dimensions. Also the means of all dimensions of the family environment were significantly lower than those of the corresponding dimensions of the classroom learning environment. It is suggested that more effort should be made to enhance both classroom learning environment and family environment to generate convergent forces to efficiently cultivate students' critical thinking.

This study developed and validated a scale of STEM project-based learning (PBL) experience, which comprises four dimensions: scientific inquiry, technological application, engineering design, and mathematical processing. The participants were 727 primary higher graders. Both within-network and between-network approaches were adopted to analyze the construct validation of the scale. The within-network analyses revealed good internal consistency reliability. The four-dimensional structure of STEM-PBL experience was supported by the confirmatory factor analysis. Multi-group confirmatory factor analyses showed that the four-dimensional structure was consistent across students of different genders and grades. The between-network analyses generated significant correlations of the four dimensions of STEM-PBL experience with students' interest in learning STEM, utilitarian motives for learning STEM, and STEM career aspiration. This scale can be used in future research to probe how different components of STEM-PBL are related to the cognitive and affective development of students, which will in turn help teachers to make evidence-based decisions when they design STEM-PBL for different objectives.

The demand for engineering talent is increasing with economic and societal developments. Along with this, nations worldwide are attaching increasing importance to engineering education under international science, technology, engineering and mathematics initiatives. In China, engineering education at university levels is dominant. Corresponding systemic engineering education at the K-12 level has yet to be established. With the aim of determining the status of K-12 engineering education, this study investigates the impacts of students' participation in engineering practice on their attitudes toward engineering. Survey responses from a sample of 2,193 students from junior secondary schools in Shanghai, China, are used. Sample selection bias is mitigated using propensity score methods based on weight hierarchy. The findings indicate the status of student participation in engineering practice and reveal the significant effect of the level of student participation in engineering practice on students' attitudes toward engineering at junior secondary schools in China.