Abstract The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of open-ended substances identification experiments on students' divergent thinking and self-efficacy. Students were from Xinjiang preparatory class in inland high school. They designed different experiment schemes and finished experiments by themselves in chemistry class. The experimental design for this study was one-group pretest-posttest design. The results of this study were as followed:(1) significant differences weren't found between the pretest and posttest scores in achievement test on "acid, base and salt"; (2) significant differences were found between the pretest and posttest scores in divergent thinking test; (3) significant differences also existed between the pretest and posttest scores in the "progression of experiment schemes design" subscale of self-efficacy questionnaire. Results indicated that open-ended substances identification experiments had significant effect on students' divergent thinking of designing substances identification experiment schemes, and had effect on students' self-efficacy of solving problem.
