Abstract
Despite the importance of research competence in modern chemical education, traditional instructional methods often fail to sufficiently prepare students for independent scientific inquiry and professional growth, creating a gap between theoretical knowledge and practical application. The research aimed to experimentally validate a multifaceted system of pedagogical environments (research-focused, metacognitive-digital, and motivational) designed to foster research competence in chemistry students through practice-oriented learning. The research design of the research was a 30-week longitudinal pedagogical experiment utilizing a quasi-experimental design with pre- and post-test assessments. The sample comprised of 325 third- and fourth-year future chemistry teachers (experimental group (EG)=165; control group (CG)=160) from a national university in Kazakhstan. Statistical analysis (Pearson χ² test) confirmed significant growth in the EG across all competence criteria, with the proportion of students reaching “high-level” research proficiency increasing from 10.9% to 38.8%. The key implication is integrating structured pedagogical environments into teacher-training curricula effectively bridges the gap between theoretical knowledge and practical inquiry, providing a scalable framework for modernizing science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education.