Miriam Spodniaková Pfefferová

Experimental activities are an essential part of physics education. In addition to conveying scientific knowledge, they play a significant role in developing scientific literacy, inquiry skills, and critical thinking. In today’s world, where students are exposed to vast amounts of information of varying quality, the ability to analyse, evaluate, and interpret information correctly has become increasingly important. This paper presents a series of physics experiments in the field of optics, specifically designed to foster critical thinking at various stages of the inquiry process. The topic of optics was chosen deliberately, as many optical phenomena occur naturally in everyday life, are familiar to students, and stimulate their curiosity. At the same time, they provide space for formulating hypotheses, designing experiments, interpreting data, and evaluating alternative explanations. Each experiment begins with a real-life problem situation that students are expected to explore and resolve through their own investigative work. The tasks are structured to encourage discussion, require argumentation, and promote reflection on both the process and the outcomes. The proposed experiments are suitable for students at both primary and secondary school levels and can be implemented in formal as well as non-formal educational settings. The aim of this contribution is to demonstrate how well-designed and pedagogically grounded experiments can not only enhance the understanding of physical concepts but also systematically develop critical thinking skills – one of the key competencies of 21 ^st -century education.

This paper aims to identify the factors that are positively or negatively impacting students’ well-being and their academic engagement. We used partial least-squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) using the data collected through a questionnaire from four countries: Romania, Turkey, Slovakia, and Bulgaria. The model includes seven factors that influence the well-being of students and indirectly their academic engagement: stressors in the students’ lives; professors’ support; social support from family and friends; the students’ perceived satisfaction in their lives; engaging in activities during their leisure time; self-exploration regarding their careers; and environmental exploration regarding their careers. The results show that all factors, except for stressors and environmental exploration regarding their careers, positively influence the students’ well-being and thus their academic engagement. These findings are useful for university professors and managers in better organizing activities to increase academic performance.

In addition to several societal and individual impacts, the pandemic of COVID-19 has greatly affected educational systems everywhere. The education in those uni In addition to several societal and individual impacts, the pandemic of COVID-19 has greatly affected educational systems everywhere. The education in those uni

Paper focuses on issues of physics teaching in primary and secondary schools and secondary vocational education. Physics teaching is discussed in the context of science education with the aim of not increasing the range of knowledge, but with an emphasis on the use of the most effective methods of teaching, for example inquiry-oriented activities by students.

At present a lot of ideas for student inquiry-based activities accompanied with methodical remarks and instructions for teachers exist and can be used at physics lessons at lower and upper secondary levels. A need of the use of the teaching methods that support an independent student work as well as active learning approaches has been reflected also in the Slovak state educational program at various educational levels. Experiences of teachers who have used inquiry-based approaches in the classrooms are often in the contrary with expectations of these didactical trends. The paper aims to compare the theory and the practice of the implementation of inquiry-based activities in physics teaching. Practical experience was gained implementing activities for science education developed within the Chain Reaction project running at Matej Bel University Banska Bystrica. Opinions of teachers were investigated with the help of questionnaires, evaluation meetings and structured interviews. Their analysis identified many problems that the teachers had met during the implementation of the inquiry-based approaches in their teaching, as well as benefits of those activities for development of student competences.

One of the most important goals of science education is to develop understanding of natural systems. It is impossible to comprehensively understand the functioning of natural systems only by knowledge of one subject (physics, chemistry, biology, etc.). Therefore the application of the cross-curricular approach in teaching of science subjects is required. Besides the scientific knowledge the understanding of science research methods is important, too. This can be obtained with the use of inquiry-based activities in science lessons that provide possibilities to show students how science works. The aim of this paper is to introduce the strategy for the use of cross-curricular approaches in inquiry-based activities in science education that was implemented within the Chain Reaction project. The project targeted 14- to 16-year-old students who in groups investigated an interdisciplinary research problem and then presented their findings and experiences at national or international events. Cosmic Web Site represents an example of the activity that encourages students to learn various topics of physics as well as to use their knowledge and skills obtained at computer science lessons. The feedback from the teachers involved in Chain Reaction that was gained with the help of evaluation questionnaires indicates a positive impact of the used approach to the development of students’ skills and motivation to learn science subjects.