In a quasi-experimental classroom study, we longitudinally investigated whether inquiry-based, content-focused physics instruction improves students' ability to apply the control-of-variables strategy, a domain-general experimentation skill. Twelve third grade elementary school classes (Mdnage = 9 years, N = 189) were randomly assigned to receive either four different physics curriculum units (intervention) or traditional instruction (control). Experiments were frequent elements in the physics units; however, there was no explicit instruction of the control-ofvariables strategy or other experimentation skills. As intended, students in the intervention classes strongly increased their conceptual physics knowledge. More importantly, students in the intervention classes also showed stronger gains in their ability to apply the control-of-variables strategy correctly in novel situations compared to students in the control classes. Thus, a high dose of experimentation had the collateral benefit of improving the transfer of the control-ofvariables strategy. The study complements lab-based studies with convergent findings obtained in real classrooms.

We examined the predictive value and interplay of elementary school students' understanding of the control-of-variables strategy, a domain-general experimentation skill, and their prior content knowledge for subsequent conceptual knowledge acquisition and conceptual change. Trained teachers provided N = 1809 first to sixth graders with 15 lessons of guided inquiry-based instruction on floating and sinking. We assessed understanding of the control-of-variables strategy before instruction, and conceptual content knowledge from before to after instruction. A mixture model analysis, specifically, a latent transition analysis, indicates that understanding of the control-of-variables strategy predicts content knowledge structure before instruction, and content knowledge development from before to after instruction. These findings corroborate lab-based research on the interplay of experimentation skills and content knowledge in inquiry settings and extend it to teacher-guided classroom instruction. We describe how learning pathways vary depending on students' understanding of the control-of-variables strategy and prior content knowledge, and discuss implications for learning and instruction.

Physics educators today face two major challenges: supporting the acquisition of a solid base of conceptual knowledge and reducing the persisting gender gap. In the present quasi-experimental study, we investigated the potential of physics instruction that is enriched with evidence-based cognitively activating methods, such as inventing with contrasting cases or metacognitive questions, to overcome both of these challenges. Four physics teachers in charge of two parallel classes each applied our cognitively activating instruction in one of their classes (CogAct classes). The other classes received regular physics lessons (regular classes) on the same content. The sample consisted of 172 individuals from the advanced track of Swiss secondary school. Controlling for several individual student variables, CogAct classes (N = 87) outperformed regular classes (N = 85) in conceptual understanding at posttest (p < .01, β = 0.19, 95% CI [0.07, 0.32]) and three months later (p < .05, β = 0.13, 95% CI [0.00, 0.26]). The CogAct classes’ advantage in conceptual understanding was not at the expense of their quantitative problem-solving performance, which even exceeded the quantitative problem-solving performance of the regular classes at posttest (p < .05, β = 0.14, 95% CI [0.00, 0.28]). In addition, female students with above-average intelligence (PR >75) particularly benefited from CogAct instruction, as indicated by descriptive statistics and the interaction between intelligence and condition in the group of the female students for posttest conceptual understanding (p < .05, β = 0.88, 95% CI [0.06, 1.69]). We conclude that teachers can successfully be supported in implementing cognitively activating methods that improve their students’ conceptual understanding and reduce the gender gap in physics.

We examined the predictive value and interplay of elementary school students’ understanding of the control-of-variables strategy, a domain-general experimentation skill, and their prior content knowledge for subsequent conceptual knowledge acquisition and conceptual change. Trained teachers provided N = 1809 first to sixth graders with 15 lessons of guided inquiry-based instruction on the topic floating and sinking. We assessed students’ understanding of variable control before instruction, and their conceptual content knowledge before and after the instruction. Mixture model analyses indicate that the understanding of variable control predicts students’ content knowledge structure before instruction, and their content knowledge development from before to after instruction. Thus, reinstating prior lab-based findings, the understanding of a basic experimentation skill matters in teacher-guided inquiry, in interaction with prior content knowledge. We describe how students’ learning pathways vary depending on their understanding of variable control and prior content knowledge, and discuss implications for learning and instruction.

Instruction often starts with an explanation of a concept or principle before students are presented with problems to be solved. Recent research indicates that reversing this widely used tell-and-practice sequence (T&P) so that exploratory problem-solving precedes the instructional explanation (i.e., PS-I) might be more beneficial. We aimed to replicate this advantage, but we also hypothesized based on previous research that the effectiveness of PS-I would depend on how scaffolding prompts and specific ways of representing the problems are combined. In an in vivo experimental classroom study, 213 ninth graders were randomly allocated to either a T&P or 1 of 4 PS-I conditions (in a 2 × 2 design). In all PS-I conditions, exploratory problem-solving consisted of a comparing and contrasting cases activity. However, we varied whether the students processed grounded or idealized cases (containing or stripped off contextual detail, respectively) and whether the activity was scaffolded by an invention or a self-explanation prompt. We assessed transfer performance immediately after learning and 4 weeks later. The PS-I sequences were not generally more effective than the T&P sequence, the effectiveness was influenced by an interaction of scaffolding prompts and problem representation. Immediately after learning, T&P students were only outperformed by students who learned with grounded cases and self-explanation prompts, by students who learned with grounded cases and invention prompts, and by students who learned with idealized cases and invention prompts; only the latter retained this advantage 4 weeks after learning. We discuss potential reasons and emphasize that PS-I sequences demand careful design.