GuiAn Li

Critical thinking (CT) is widely recognized as a central goal of science education, yet its mechanisms within specific disciplinary contexts remain underexplored. This study developed a biology-specific theoretical model of CT through qualitative analysis of high school students’ engagement with contradictory evidence. Data included pen-and-paper responses from 196 students and eight classroom dialogue transcripts, analyzed using Corbin and Strauss’s coding procedures, with sequential batching and external validation. Selective coding identified questioning—transforming multiple criteria—as the core category, supported by four major categories: evolving evaluative criteria, various types of reasoning, analysis without judgment, and the application of empirical knowledge across criteria. This model explains how learners shift between confirmation, falsification, and reconstruction when anomalies disrupt initial assumptions. To extend its theoretical reach, the model was placed in heuristic dialogue with Kuhn’s structure of scientific revolutions. The comparison highlights the cyclical nature of CT development: anomalies destabilize prevailing frameworks and trigger reorganization of evaluative criteria, fostering cognitive growth. By explicating how students engage with contradictory evidence and transform evaluative criteria, this study elucidates the emergence of critical thinking in disciplinary practice. The findings also inform the design of biology learning environments that deliberately incorporate anomalies and cognitive conflicts, and justify the integration of history and philosophy of science (HPS) perspectives to support students’ questioning, analysis, and criteria revision in authentic scientific contexts.

National identity education is a form of education that fosters a stable sense of national identity among citizens and plays a crucial role in the sustainable development of the country. However, with the deepening of economic globalisation and cultural pluralism, pre-service teachers, in their dual roles as school students and prospective teachers, have encountered challenges in practicing their intention to implement national identity education. This study constructed a model of influencing pre-service teachers’ intention to implement national identity education based on the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) and the cognitive evaluation theory (CET) with the aim of explaining and analysing the development path of pre-service teachers’ educational intentions. The model was validated using PLS-SEM and fsQCA on data from 280 pre-service teachers in teacher training colleges in northern China. The PLS-SEM results indicated that subjective norms, relatedness need, and study resources directly and positively influenced pre-service teachers’ educational intentions, and study resources could also indirectly influence educational intentions through subjective norms and a need for relatedness. The fsQCA results indicated that a single variable was unable to predict and explain educational intentions. A total of five ways of influencing educational intentions emerged from the group analysis. Based on the pre-service teachers’ propensity to demand learning resources and their competence, pre-service teachers were categorised into four types—basic development pathway, internally driven pathway, competence-driven pathway and resource-supported pathway—and recommendations were made according to the degree of reliance on resources of different types of pre-service teachers as a way of providing theoretical and data support for the sustainable development of the country.

The mechanism of NO_x photo-oxidation and the pathway of photogenerated charge carries mechanism over K_0.5Bi_0.5TiO₃ photocatalyst.