BECE. Newsletter 

Vol.20, No.1, 2025, BECE 1969 

 

 

 

 

The Effects of Metacognitive Scaffolding on Scientific 

Concept Learning in Senior Primary Students in the 

Context of Virtual Scientific Inquiry: An Empirical 

Study 

By Shan, M., Xu, R., Shangguan, C., & Zheng, Y. 
Correspondence to: Meixian Shan, Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommu-

nications, China.  E-mail: mxshan@163.com  

CIENTIFIC concept study is an essential component of science educa-

tion. A virtual scientific inquiry platform is an effective device for facili-

tating students grasping scientific concepts through inquiry-based learning. 

In a virtual scientific inquiry setting, metacognitive scaffolding that inte-

grates the “predict-observe-explain” (POE) strategy can play an exceptional-

ly significant role, given the absence of face-to-face tutoring from the teacher. 

Adopting experimental research design, this study seeks to investigate the ef-

fects of metacognitive scaffolding on scientific concept learning in senior 

primary school students in the context of virtual scientific inquiry. 

Research Findings: 

 In all regions chosen, girls, on average, had higher levels of 

empathy than boys.  There were greater gender differences 

in empathy ability among North American adolescents than 

among East Asian ones. 

 Metacognitive scaffolding can significantly enhance the ca-

pacity of senior primary students for scientific concept un-

derstanding and transfer, but without noticeable effects on 

their capacity for concept recognition. 

 Metacognitive scaffolding is effective in improving students’ 

confidence judgements in scientific concept learning, indi-

cating it can boost their self-efficacy by encouraging self-

monitoring and reflection. 

 Metacognitive scaffolding can improve students’ perfor-

mance in scientific concept transfer by supporting their con-

fidence judgements in this area. Path analysis results reveal 

that metacognitive scaffolding significantly positively pre-

dicts students’ confidence judgements, which in turn, signif-

icantly positively predicts their performance in knowledge 

transfer. 

Suggestions: 

S 

mailto:mxshan@163.com


 

Vol.20, No.1, 2025, BECE 1970 

 Plan learning tasks with explicit objectives and 

support student self-monitoring and reflection at 

the initial stage of scientific concept study. 

 Increase guidance and feedback for students to as-

sist with their self-regulation and reflection at the 

stage of conceptual understanding. 

 Devise diverse learning scenarios to foster stu-

dents’ capacity for knowledge transfer at the stage 

of conceptual transfer. Metacognitive scaffolding 

can aid students in identifying and applying con-

cepts previously learned to new scenarios by of-

fering prompts and directions. 

 Encourage students to conduct self-evaluation and 

reflect on their performance and perceptions of 

various learning experiences to further enhance 

their confidence judgements. 

 

 

Source: China Educational Technology, 2024; 2024(12):73-80.