This study aimed to identify the cognitive and metacognitive strategies used by eighth-grade students when solving open-ended physics questions and the frequency of their use of these strategies. A case study, one of the qualitative research methods, was used in the study. A total of nine students participated in the study, three from each of two private and one public secondary school in Kars province. The study data were collected using “Open-Ended Physics Questions,” “Thinking Aloud Sessions Conducted with Open-Ended Physics Questions,” and a “Semi-Structured Interview Form.” In the study, two open-ended Physics questions were solved by the students with think-aloud protocols, and semi-structured interviews were conducted with the students after solving each open-ended question. The students' processes of solving the questions and semi-structured interviews were recorded on camera. Transcripts have been made of the data from the observation and interview processes recorded on camera. Content analyses were performed on the transcribed qualitative data. The most frequently used cognitive strategies among students attending Private Secondary School 1, Private Secondary School 2 and Public Middle School were reading while tracing words with a pen, expressing ideas in their own words, comparing the explanations in the question with the figure, following the words with a pen, taking notes next to the explanations in the question, and examining the figure. Students attending Private Secondary School 1, Private Secondary School 2 and Public Middle School most frequently employed the metacognitive strategies of re-reading, underlining clues, circling clues, re-examining the figure, re-examining the shape and taking notes next to the explanations in the question.
Cognitive strategy, metacognitive strategy, problem solving, open-ended question