Exploring high school students’ inquiry skills level and regional differences in STEM learning

Background In the 21st century, characterized by continuous innovation in educational models and curriculum content, the development of students’ inquiry skills through STEM education has increasingly gained attention, becoming a hot topic among educators. However, research on the prediction of students’ inquiry skills is limited, especially using students’ self-efficacy, motivation and learning attitude to predict students’ inquiry skills.Methods This study used scales developed in our previous studies to measure students’ self-efficacy, motivation, learning attitude and inquiry skills. Atotal of 646 HongKong and Mainland China high school students participated in this study. The study firstly investigated gender difference and regional difference in these four items by independent sample t-tests. Then, linear regression analysis and structural equation models were used to predict students’ inquiry skills.Results The results of the analysis showed that there existed significant or weakly significant gender differences in STEM self-efficacy, motivation, learning attitude and inquiry skills among high school students. Moreover, asignificant regional difference in STEM self-efficacy was found. The results of the confirmatory factor analysis justified the feasibility of using self-efficacy, motivation and learning attitude to predict high school students’ inquiry skills.Conclusions This study showed that students’ self-efficacy, motivation, and learning attitudes are key factors in predicting their STEM inquiry skills. This finding not only emphasizes the importance of focusing on students’ non-cognitive factors in STEM education, but also provides a practical model for educators to assess students’ inquiry skills. Furthermore, by exploring gender and regional differences in students, new evidence is provided for the development of STEM education in different educational contexts.