Following the identification of eligible participants and obtaining informed consent, participants will be allocated to the intervention and control groups using a randomization method based on colored cards.
For this purpose, four card colors will be assigned to the respective groups (red, yellow, blue, and green). During the first session, an equal number of cards in each of the four colors, corresponding to the total number of students in the class, will be placed on a table. As the students will be unaware of the group assignments, each student will select one of the colored cards, and their name and the color of the selected card will be recorded. Accordingly, they will be allocated to the four intervention and control groups, and no further information regarding the group assignments will be provided to them until the intervention begins.
Although the researcher must be aware of the group assignments for the purpose of study management, to prevent allocation bias and ensure observer blinding, the researcher responsible for data analysis and the examiner responsible for scoring the tests will remain blinded to the participants’ group assignments (assessor blinding).
Each student will remain in the assigned group throughout all intervention sessions. To control for bias arising from differences in the scientific content of the sessions, the subtopics will be matched in terms of volume, complexity, and prerequisite knowledge; a pre-class readiness test will be administered at the beginning of each session; and the variable “session/content” will be included as a repeated factor in the statistical analyses.