Bridging Nanoscience and Chemistry as a Lever for Developing Higher-Order Questioning Skills Among High School Students

Developing higher-order thinking skills in general, and question-asking skills in particular, is considered a cornerstone for fostering critical and cognitive thinking skills. Question-asking is a key component in student engagement toward understanding complex scientific concepts. This study investigates two innovative dimensions in chemistry education: the integration of nanoscience and nanotechnology aspects into chemistry instruction, and its impact on development of question-asking skills among 11th-grade high school students. Using a quasi-experimental design, 120 students were divided equally into experimental and control groups. Both groups read a simplified scientific text on redox reactions; the control group’s text addressed redox reactions only, while the experimental group’s text had nanoscience aspects embedded within the same redox context. Students’ questions were evaluated by five judges using a validated four-level questioning hierarchy, ranging from factual to complex integrative knowledge. Results revealed significant differences in both the number and cognitive level of questions generated by the two groups. Students exposed to the nano-integrated text demonstrated markedly higher question-asking skills. In conclusion, integrating nanoscience into chemistry instruction was shown to be a powerful gateway to developing higher-order thinking, enabling students to ask more cognitively advanced questions, deepen their scientific understanding, and engage more meaningfully with scientific content.