This aligns with teaching science using an inquiry-based approach in which discovery drives knowledge construction by student participation in exploratory tasks . Also, productive failure has been cited to explain the superiority of an inquiry-based learning first approach with exploration activating the pre-existing knowledge of students . Although most educators in the UK believe in inquiry-led practical science, there is an emerging body of cognitive science research indicating a detrimental impact to student understanding from an inquiry-based learning only approach . This is mainly because the flow of information is unregulated by an educator and so the absence of guided instruction increases the chance of cognitive overload on behalf of the student. Moreover, the instructional interventions that help a student move from insecure understanding to full understanding through practice (i.e. scaffolds) are missing. Thus, teaching applied electrochemical science would benefit from explicitly teaching the scientific concept followed by practice to consolidate understanding before finally conducting scientific investigation having already studied each step explicitly .