METACOGNITION AND INQUIRY-BASED LEARNING AS INFLUENCES OF SCIENCE PROCESS SKILLS IN STEM EDUCATION
Abstract
The low science process skills among Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics students has become an urgent concern in education worldwide This study assessed the impact of metacognition and inquiry-based learning on the science process skills of 114 STEM students, revealing that despite high levels of metacognitive awareness and inquiry-based learning, students exhibit only satisfactory science process skills with notable deficits in hypothesizing and experimenting. Regression analysis confirmed that these factors account for only 10.2% of science process skills variance, highlighting a significant disconnect between students' cognitive awareness and their practical application of science competencies. This disparity suggests that current inquiry-based practices likely lack the structured, explicit scaffolding required to translate theoretical knowledge into operational skill. To bridge this gap, educators should prioritize the integration of explicit, process-focused instruction and guided scaffolding within inquiry tasks to directly enhance students' proficiency in experimental design and hypothesis formulation.
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