This study examines teachers’ acceptance of an inquiry-oriented, Crime Scene Investigation (CSI)-based teaching sequence supported by a Virtual Scanning Electron Microscope (Virtual-SEM) using an extended Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). While TAM has been widely used to explain technology adoption, its traditional focus on cognitive perceptions may not fully capture the pedagogical complexity of educational settings. To address this, the study integrates pedagogical and affective variables, namely Inquiry Engagement (INQ), Trust (TR), and Self-Efficacy (SE), into the TAM framework. Data were collected from 30 teachers who evaluated a teaching sequence designed according to constructivist principles and the 5E Instructional Model. Descriptive statistics, reliability analysis, correlation analysis, and multiple regression analyses were employed to examine the relationships among constructs. The findings indicate high perceived usefulness, positive attitudes, and strong behavioral intention to adopt the sequence. Inquiry Engagement was significantly associated with both Perceived Usefulness and Attitude Toward Use, while Trust was significantly associated with Perceived Ease of Use and attitudes. In contrast, Perceived Usefulness showed a weak and non-significant association with attitudes, suggesting that pedagogical factors may play a particularly important role in technology acceptance. Attitude Toward Use showed the strongest association with Behavioral Intention. The findings provide preliminary support for an extended, pedagogically enriched TAM and highlight the potential importance of instructional design in technology acceptance.

This exploratory study examines how Control of Variables Strategy (CVS) sub-skills develop among high school students through Inquiry-Based Learning (IBL) activities in physics. It specifically assesses students' understanding of four CVS sub-skills (Planning, Identifying, Interpreting, and Understanding) as they engage in Confirmation, Structured, and Guided inquiry activities. A total of 22 students from 10 and 11th grades participated in this four-month study. An exploratory Rasch analysis offered initial insights into how the difficulty levels of each CVS sub-skill changed over the instructional sequence, though interpretations are limited by methodological constraints such as a small sample size (N = 22) and ceiling effects observed in students’ responses. The results show initial signs of gradual improvement across all CVS sub-skills, with Understanding demonstrating the largest normalized Hake gain and the most significant overall progress, while Planning consistently remained the biggest challenge for students. After the Guided Inquiry phase, students displayed the clearest qualitative gains in Planning and Identifying, suggesting potential benefits of increasing student autonomy. Despite the study’s limitations, this research provides valuable initial insights into how structured and guided inquiry can gradually enhance students' scientific reasoning skills.

Abstract This paper presents the design of a mystery-solving teaching sequence focused on exploring micro- and nanoscale structure through the analysis of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images. Although the introduction of contemporary microscopy and imaging techniques through inquiry-based activities is increasingly important in secondary education, research on developing targeted teaching sequences in this context remains limited. The proposed sequence introduces students to micro- and nanoscale structure through a crime scene investigation (CSI)-based scenario while engaging them in inquiry activities involving SEM image observation, comparison, and interpretation. The teaching sequence was designed according to the 5E instructional model and uses images of human hair samples provided by a Virtual-SEM simulation. Within the sequence, students are expected to investigate the structure of hair samples, identify morphological differences, collect measurements, and compare microstructural characteristics across SEM images. The instructional design integrates three key dimensions: familiarisation with inquiry-oriented investigation processes, introduction to SEM imaging and microstructural analysis, and active engagement in the learning process through a CSI-based scenario. Core activities include image observation, quantitative measurement, sample comparison, and evidence-based interpretation. A preliminary validation phase, conducted through a questionnaire administered to 30 science teachers, provided formative feedback on the pedagogical design and perceived learning benefits of the sequence. Teachers’ responses also highlighted practical considerations for classroom implementation, informing directions for further refinement. The next stage of the research will involve classroom implementation to examine the sequence’s educational impact on student learning outcomes.

This study presents a professional development (PD) program designed within the “SciArt—Promoting 21st-century skills through an inclusive STEAM approach to Cultural Heritage” project, which aims to prepare teachers to implement an inclusive, inquiry-based STEAM approach in their classrooms. The approach, developed collaboratively by academics from the arts, sciences, and cultural sectors across Cyprus, Greece, and Portugal, integrates archaeometric methods with cultural heritage to support identity exploration and inclusive pedagogy. The study explores how participating teachers evaluated the PD program, how it influenced their self-efficacy in applying inclusive, inquiry-based STEAM approaches, and how teacher trainers experienced its implementation across different national contexts. The study utilizes both qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection, comprising questionnaires and a focus group. Results show high teacher satisfaction and increased self-efficacy across four thematic areas: inquiry-based learning, science-heritage integration, cultural identity exploration, and use of multimodality for inclusion. Teacher trainers described the process as demanding but professionally enriching, emphasizing the role of interdisciplinary collaboration. These findings highlight the potential of well-supported, theoretically grounded PD programs to build capacity for inclusive STEAM education, while also revealing structural barriers that must be addressed for wider implementation.

The Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) framework is widely used to conceptualize teacher knowledge as an interplay of content, pedagogy, and technology. Following recent research interests in examining TPACK as contextually situated knowledge, this study investigates how pre-service physics teachers (undergraduate students in a physics department) and in-service science teachers perceive the domains of TPACK and explores what these differences imply for university-based teacher education. A total of 48 pre-service physics undergraduates and 27 in-service teachers completed an adapted 21-item self-assessment questionnaire, which combined validated items with context-specific modifications. Data analysis included internal consistency reliability tests, independent samples t-tests, and correlation analysis. Results revealed that pre-service teachers reported higher self-assessed competencies, especially in integrative domains, although their knowledge structures appeared less coherent. In contrast, in-service teachers exhibited more coherent and integrated knowledge frameworks, possibly reflecting their accumulated professional experience, despite reporting lower self-confidence. These findings confirm the contextual and situated nature of TPACK, highlighting the divergence between perceived competence and structural coherence. The study contributes by proposing that university science education programs should not only promote theoretical understanding of TPACK but also deliberately embed technology-rich, practice-oriented experiences.

The aim of this study is to evaluate the contribution of mobile devices to ninth-grade students' Critical thinking & Problem solving skills in laboratory settings.Students participated in a sequence of Microcomputer-based and mobile supported Laboratories, covering four different cognitive topics in Physics.Research instruments such as a reflective questionnaire, students' messages in a Viber group and a set of open-ended questions seem to enlighten the students' progress.Students' development of Critical thinking and Problem solving skills, over time in the Laboratory sequence, turns out by their way of manipulating, analysing, evaluating the experimental data and reflecting on the experimental procedures in the Viber group.Also, students' written responses to open-ended questions before and after the mobile-supported Labs revealed interesting data about their improvement.

Critical Thinking & Problem Solving belong to 21st century skills that enhance ways of thinking, learning, working andliving in the world. When combined with well-designed educational activities, mobile technology has the capacity to fosterthese

Inquiry-based learning (IBL) is essential to Science Education since it improves students' conceptual comprehension, higher-order thinking abilities, and interpersonal skills. Mobile technology (mIBL) promotes active learning, facilitates access to learning materials, and enhances IBL in terms of mobility and rapid feedback. This study assesses the 9th grade students' awareness of 4Cs skills (Collaboration, Communication, Critical thinking and problem solving, and Creativity) after participating in mobile-technology-supported inquiry-based Teaching Learning Sequence (TLS). Additionally, the study investigates the qualities/characteristics students cite before and after the TLS in relation to these skills. The results of a questionnaire administered to students indicate that their awareness of these skills has increased as a result of the TLS. Specifically, the TLS seems to have a greater impact on Collaboration and Communication than on Critical thinking and problem solving, and Creativity. An additional qualitative investigation of students' written answers to explanatory open-ended questions before and after the entire procedure found intriguing data confirming their shift in 4Cs awareness.

STEM education promotes scientific inquiry and engineering design, including mathematics, incorporating appropriate technologies. Portable technologies motivate active learning of students and enable accessing to learn resources, facilitating cross-disciplinary designing tasks. This chapter initially presents theoretical approaches of STEM education, mobile learning, and inquiry-based learning, and then it describes an inquiry-based short-term intervention that took advantage of portable digital devices in a STEM class. The aim of the intervention was to study its affection on students' motivation about physics. Results indicate that students who participated in the activity had higher motivation scores than their classmates who attended lessons with conventional teaching methods. The findings also show that the students involved in a guided inquiry-based process became more profoundly engaged in STEM than their classmates who followed a structured inquiry process. Other factors, such as grade point average (GPA) and gender, did not seem to affect student motivation.

In this study, an inquiry-based sequence was designed, developed and implemented using facets of flipped classroom and aspects of inquiry learning using the ADDIE model. The sequence intends to promote the students' scientific literacy. The aim of this paper is to examine the effectiveness of specially designed inquiry-based online worksheets (e-WS) to actively engage students in the design of unconfounded experiments by applying the Control of Variables Strategy (CVS). Second-year senior high school (11th grade) students participated in an intervention in which facets of flipped classroom approach with asynchronous and synchronous distance learning sessions were adopted, during the COVID-19 lockdown. Results show that the flipped classroom approach with synchronous and asynchronous sessions was acceptable and adoptable by the students; the existence of probe questions in e-WS, combined with explicit reference to inquiry procedure enhanced students' awareness of scientific practice and on CVS, while at the end of the intervention, students were capable of applying the CVS in the design of unconfounded experiments.

This empirical study investigates the main features of curricula and contexts that favor or hinder the process of transfer of a teaching-learning sequence cris) from the designers' original situation to a host one. The specific research questions addressed were (RQ1) what were the changes made during the process of transfer in the new context? (RQ2) What were the similarities or differences between the national curricula and contexts that influenced the process of transfer? To answer our research questions, we chose two TLSs, one about optical properties of materials, the other about thermal conductivity, originally designed by two groups of researchers and experienced teachers in Italy and Greece, respectively. The transfer process was analyzed using the "adaptation and reinvention" model, originally developed for the management knowledge research field, while the construct of "institutional distance" was used to describe the influence of country-specific aspects on the transfer process. Data collected included background documents that describe the principles underlying the TLSs design, the decisions and changes made to the original TLSs by the hosting group, and reports on the TLS implementation in classroom practice in the original and in the host context. Content analysis was used to analyze data. Results show that the similarities between the two national curricula and interactions between the involved groups acted mainly as facilitators of the transfer process.

Eye tracking is increasingly being used in Educational Science and so has the interest of the eye tracking community grown in this topic. In this study we used eye-tracking technology to investigate students' visual behavior while working with computer simulations. Our goal was to investigate the differences between experienced and inexperienced users' behavior. Four participants were examined, two senior undergraduate Physics students that were assigned into the experienced group and two 3rd grade of Greek middle-school students that were assigned into the inexperienced group. All participants were given two PhET Physics simulations accompanied by the corresponding worksheets. The cursor on the screen in the first one was controlled with the mouse movement, while in the second one with the iris movement. A GP3 eye tracker was used to record each participant's eye movements. The results reveal that all users found the eye-control method way more interesting, even though both have faced difficulties to accurately control the simulation. Also, it seems that the experienced users tend to fixate directly on the resulting output right after they change the inputs from the control panels, while the inexperienced ones seem to gaze to the represented phenomenon, trying to realize the effect that change had.

Our work focuses on developing strategies in problem solving, with the use of simulations. Students' actions in simulations are recorded in log files, and analyzed in order to study their behavior between the various levels of inquiry, from the perspective of Activity Theory, which is the general framework supporting our method. Specifically, educational simulations were designed to support mediaenhanced problems for the students to solve as homework. The study of the log files showed that students developed useful skills and strategies.

This paper presents the development and implementation of worksheets using inquiry as a strategy to engage students with web virtual labs during summer school activities. The Optic Web Lab is presented and its advantages are discussed. A sequence of worksheets based on inquiry learning is described. First quantitative results and recommendations about homework are discussed.

This paper presents three novel open, web-based, virtual laboratories for Physics. The labs are open, meaning they embody a complete Physics micro-world that implements all necessary Physics laws in algorithmic format. They run in real time and are deployed as Java applets, in order to be accessible via the World Wide Web, with minimum requirements on the client side. Additionally, the labs present a number of features, highly desirable for virtual labs, such as photorealistic graphics, direct manipulation, user friendliness, multiple visualizations of the experiments and the corresponding phenomena and multiple measuring instruments. Finally we present the main design principles on which the development of the labs were based and we propose good practices that can help the acceptance from the science teachers’ community and the more effective way of implementation into the class situation.

This article examines secondary students' design of experiments after engagement in an innovative and inquiry-oriented module on heat transfer. The module consists of an integration of hands-on experiments, simulated experiments and microscopic model simulations, includes a structured series of guided investigative tasks and was implemented for a sample of 24 lower secondary (compulsory education) school students in Greece. A post-instructional assessment comprising written tests and interviews of the sample of students was employed. The findings revealed that after implementation of the module, a respectable number of the students showed ability in experiment design skills such as forming hypotheses and successfully describing experimental procedure.

In line with current trends about developing teaching learning sequences in science education we have designed an innovative inquiry oriented module aiming at providing secondary education students with a comprehensive treatment of thermal conductivity in materials. The module, developed in the context of the European Project on Materials Science, consist of units which make an extensive use of ICT-based tools, including virtual laboratories and specially developed parametric simulations of microscopic models on heat conduction as well as hands-on experiments. The structure of the module is presented here as well results from classroom applications, which include pre-post tests, teachers’ notes and video taped lessons. Preliminary preand post-test results showed moderate evolvement in students’ understanding of concepts and process of heat conduction in different materials.