International Inquiry-Based Methodology for Developing Scientific Thinking in Physics Education

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to develop and substantiate an international inquiry-based methodology for improving students' scientific thinking in physics education through a digital research platform named Inquiry Physics Research Design. The study integrates the international logic of inquiry-based science education, the PISA 2025 scientific literacy framework, the National Research Council's three-dimensional science-learning framework, and contemporary research on active learning, simulations and physics education research. The practical component was implemented through a digital platform containing methodological foundations, ten interactive physics simulations, research-oriented tasks, a progress dashboard, certificate generation and a structured teacher-guided inquiry workflow. The platform was demonstrated in a classroom environment through teacher-student interaction, practical experimentation and guided analysis of physics phenomena such as pendulum motion, Newton's second law, Archimedes' principle, Ohm's law, heat transfer, sound waves, energy conservation, elasticity and orbital motion. The article combines a PRISMA-informed narrative literature synthesis with a mixed-method design for future classroom testing. Quantitative assessment is proposed through pre/post scientific reasoning tasks, inquiry-rubric scores, simulation completion indicators and conceptual physics tests. Qualitative assessment is proposed through student explanations, observation notes, reflection prompts and teacher feedback. The proposed methodology treats inquiry not as a free activity without structure, but as a scaffolded sequence of problem posing, hypothesis construction, virtual experimentation, data collection, evidence interpretation and scientific explanation. The results section presents the expected educational value of the platform: development of evidence-based reasoning, deeper conceptual understanding, increased engagement, improved data interpretation and a stronger culture of scientific argumentation in physics lessons. The article is prepared as a journal-style manuscript and may serve as a methodological foundation for school-based research, teacher innovation projects and digital transformation of physics education.