This study aims to evaluate students' ability to process the context information embedded in chemistry problems. To achieve this goal, a diagnostic measurement instrument was developed, comprising 28 short-answer items embedded in seven context-based chemistry tasks. Four hundred and ninety-three ninth-graders took part in the testing in Jiangsu,…

Textbooks use images, in addition to text, for delivering knowledge, thereby convey attitudes and values of students including those on gender bias. The gender bias presented in textbook images affects in subtle ways the students' learning outcomes, career choices, and how they perceive science. However, prior research has relied on explicit…

Background: Mathematics homework is highly prevalent in East Asia. Teachers and parents expect mathematics homework to improve students' performance; however, studies have not clearly defined the effectiveness of the assignment of different amounts of homework. Aims: This study analyses the differential effect of homework amount on various facets…

Previous studies have indicated a positive association between physical activity (PA) and mathematics achievement. The present study explored the association of PA outside school with math interest using longitudinal data from Kaifeng, a medium-sized city in Central China. A two-tier multilevel logistic model was conducted using 2,132 students'…

This article focuses on the role of language ideology in four students' ethnic identity during one stage. I employ Bakhtin's concepts of ideological becoming, and of authoritative and internally persuasive discourse to explore how the student participants are conscious of language and social worlds, including their heritage language and ethnic…

Online metacognitive skills are the real-time awareness of cognition, which can effectively promote science learning and improve performance in solving scientific problems. Therefore, it is important to enhance and diagnose students' online metacognitive skills in science education. This study aimed to evaluate ninth-grade students' online…

This study aimed to develop a STEM module for eighth-grade middle school learners through the engineering design process. The module was developed based on the ADDIE model, primarily concentrating on the stages of analysis, design and development. The study consisted of two main phases: module development and module evaluation. During the…

Exploring the factors that benefit academic persistence may facilitate adolescents' positive outcomes to increase the likelihood of future success, especially for adolescents with low family socioeconomic status (SES). Previous research has highlighted the merits of both motivational beliefs (e.g., self-efficacy and interests) and learning…

Based on data from the China Education Panel Survey in the academic years of 2013-2014 and 2014-2015, this article sought to investigate whether shadow education can yield the "theater effect" and whether the "theater effect" of shadow education is heterogeneous between families of different socio-economic status as well as…

We investigate the effects of 'lecture-based' (LBT)--i.e. individual work and rote learning--vs. 'discussion-based' (DBT)--i.e. participative and focused on student-centred learning--teaching styles on the test scores and socio-economic inequality of middle-school students randomly assigned to classes using data from the China Education Panel…

In science education, chemistry is a discipline that involves macroscopic matter and microscopic particles. It is difficult for the traditional teaching approach to help learners comprehend abstract chemical knowledge. Researchers have attempted to use Virtual Reality (VR) to help learners realize meaningful knowledge via visualizing the learning…

Given the paucity of research on mobile-assisted language learning (MALL) in secondary schools in China, this retrospective case study explored the psychological processes underlying the non-voluntary MALL experiences of Chinese secondary school students during a lockdown to contain the spread of COVID-19. Drawing on prior technology acceptance…

This study aimed to explore the role of inference making in the relation between vocabulary knowledge (breadth and depth) and reading comprehension for 487 ninth-grade Chinese EFL students who were categorized as either struggling or adequate. Path analysis was used to examine both direct and mediated effects. The results indicated a statistically…

Based on theories of emotion contagion and social appraisal in interpersonal affect transfer and the control-value theory of achievement emotions, the present study examined associations between students' perceptions of peer emotions and their own self-perceived emotions in English as a foreign language (EFL) classrooms. Data were collected from…

This study explored how peer feedback after hands-on scientific inquiry (SI) activities affected students' SI competence over time (6 weeks) by implementing an after-school intervention program in which 188 Chinese ninth-grade students (14-16 years old) participated during their first semester. A between-subject experimental design was used for…