Effects of 6E-Based Learning on Students’ Academic Achievement, Higher-Order Thinking Skills, and Attitudes Towards STEM

Photosynthesis is a crucial topic in life sciences and is intimately connected to human life. In this study, photosynthesis served as the context to examine the effects of 6E-based STEM learning strategies on tenth-grade students’ academic achievement, higher-order thinking skills, and attitudes towards STEM. Throughout the intervention of six biological lessons, a pretest-posttest non-equivalent group design was implemented with 92 tenth-grade students. Data were collected both quantitatively and qualitatively through tests, scales, and semi-structured interviews. The results indicated that the 6E-based STEM learning strategies: (1) significantly improved students’ academic achievement; (2) had a substantial positive effect on students’ higher-order thinking skills; (3) greatly enhanced students’ STEM attitudes, particularly towards mathematics, engineering, and career aspirations. Certain challenges were also identified that necessitate further improvement in the design and implementation of 6E-based STEM learning in the future.