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Supporting Reflective Lesson Planning Based on Inquiry Learning Analytics for Facilitating Students’ Problem Solving Competence Development: The Inspiring Science Education Tools
Abstract
Science education is recognized as a top priority for school education reforms worldwide. Inquiry-based teaching strategies are recognized as appropriate for supporting the development of the cognitive processes that cultivate problem solving (PS) competence, a key competence of scientific literacy. A widely used framework for assessing individual students’ problem solving competence at large scale is PISA 2012 Problem Solving Framework (PSF). Nevertheless, PISA 2012 PS competence assessment is primarily summative and not connected to the daily school science teaching practice. On the other hand, school accountability and self-improvement requires evidence to relate students’ PS competence development to specific design considerations of lesson plans and their corresponding teaching and learning activities used in day-to-day school science inquiry-based teaching practice. Within this context, the scope of this book chapter is to present and discuss a set of tools which aim to support the authoring and delivery of technology-enhanced science education lessons, which follow an adaptation of the 5E model, while incorporating PISA 2012 PSF compatible assessment activities at each inquiry phases. These tools support science teachers in collecting inquiry learning data, namely data from students’ activities and students’ problem solving competence performance data at each stage of the inquiry process. The further analysis of those inquiry learning data can be used for evidence-based reflective lesson planning targeting to better support students’ problem solving competence development through inquiry-based teaching.
... continuity in lesson planning and delivery is ensured. Zervas and Sampson (2017) also anticipated lesson planning in the form of implementation. This means that in science education, preparation cannot stand alone; it must be backed up by forecasts that are based on the inquiry process. ...
... Takeuchi and Vaala (2014) emphasize that evaluations and monitoring in learning environment constitute key components for the applications to be used in class environment. Zervas and Sampson (2016) have stated that gathering information in each stage of learning process and transferring them to a lesson planning process will make positive contribution to the performance of learners. Instructors' evaluation of learners' performances on basis of data, help them observe learners' performances and to rearrange learners' lessons (McKenney and Mor 2015;Persico and Pozzi 2015). ...
Purpose
Learning analytics enable learning to be reorganized through collecting, analyzing and reporting the stored data in online learning environment. One of the important agents of education process is the instructors. How the use of learning analytics within education process is evaluated by the instructors is important. The purpose of this study is to determine the experiences of instructors in relation to the use of learning analytics.
Design/methodology/approach
In this study, data were collected from instructors through interviews to determine the reflections of learning analytics on the education process. While qualitative study method was adopted, phenomenological design was used.
Findings
As a result of analysis of findings, it was concluded that the use of learning analytics in the education process was beneficial. It was established that learning analytics were helpful in the self-assessment of instructors' performances, making early intervention to risky students and creating a lesson plan.
Research limitations/implications
This study was carried out in a foreign language course and with five academicians during one semester.
Practical implications
This study aims to reveal the experiences of the instructors on the use of learning analytics and present scientific findings on a subject on which a limited number of studies have been conducted. With the start of learning analytics' use in the educational process, some concerns have been raised. This study tries to respond to the various concerns of instructors who intend to use learning analytics in the process.
Originality/value
The use of learning analytics is gradually increasing. In the studies conducted, it is seen that the studies have focused on the effect of learning analytics on the learning outputs of students. It is important to determine how instructors, who are the other important elements of the process, make use of learning analytics and how their experiences regarding the use of learning analytics are. The focal point of this study is to reveal the impact of learning analytics on the education process from the perspective of instructors.
The results of the OECD’s PISA 2003 and the key competencies indicated by the DeSeCo Project continue to have a major influence on reforms in primary and secondary education around the world. Implementing competency-based education is important as it aims at efficient and rational teaching through rearranging the contents of education and specifying competencies, among which are “knowledge skills and attitudes one should possess”. Competency based-education has been greatly improved in European and Oceanic countries. In Finland, often named as an example of successful education, seven key competencies are set out in the current curricula of all levels of schooling where these competencies are taught and nurtured. In Japan too, the importance of fostering qualities and abilities has been acknowledged, although it has yet to emerge from the abstract level of discussion. As a proposal, I clarified concrete elements through examining the kinds of competencies that teachers should be trained in through science education and, as a model case, in medical education. Instead of merely teaching only the subject matter, it is important to have alternative viewpoints, such as nurturing competences for children and students through these subjects. For this purpose, it is necessary to have discussions about the meaning of culture as the background of education, as well as what skills and qualities should be fostered in children and students towards the latter half of the 21st century.
Deeper learning (DL) has emerged at the spotlight of educational policies around the world and has gained significant attention from various stakeholders in education (teachers, school leaders, curricula designers, policy makers). This is the result of DL being associated to core competences of the current and future workplaces such as problem-solving, critical thinking, self-regulated learning, and effective collaboration, which are considered as essential for building innovative solutions to wicked global challenges. However, despite this well-acknowledged trend research related to modeling, cultivating and assessing Deeper Learning competences is still at a shaping stage. This is also reflected in the rather limited advancements in the use of digital educational technologies to support the assessment and measurement of DL. In this context, the contribution of this chapter is to perform a systematic literature review of the current state on existing works for modeling DL competences, teaching approaches applied to cultivate them as well as, methods and instruments proposed for assessing and measuring DL.
This chapter discusses four measurement challenges of data science in educational assessments that are enabled by technology: (1) Dealing with change over time. (2) How a digital performance space’s relationships interact with learner actions, communications and products. (3) How layers of interpretation are formed from translations of atomistic data into meaningful larger units suitable for making inferences about what someone knows and can do. (4) How to represent the dynamics of interactions between and among learners who are being assessed by their interactions with each other as well as with digital resources and agents in digital performance spaces. Because of the movement from paper-based tests to online learning, and in order to make progress on these challenges, the authors advocate the restructuring of training of the next generation of researchers and psychometricians in technology-enabled assessments.
Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education is recognized as a top school education priority worldwide and Inquiry-based teaching and learning is identified as a promising approach. To effectively engage students in Inquiry tasks, appropriate guidance should be provided, usually by combining digital tools such online labs and modeling tools. This is a cumbersome task for teachers, since it involves manually assessing the type/level of tool-supported guidance to be provided and potentially refining these to meet guidance needs of individual students. In our research we target to investigate how to support this systematic reflection process with educational data analytics methods and tools from both the design and the delivery of Inquiry-based educational designs (IED). The contribution of this paper is to propose a novel "Teaching and Learning" Analytics method and research prototype tool, extending the scope of purely learning analytics methods, to analyze IED in terms of the tool-supported guidance they offer and relate these analyses to students' educational data that are already being collected by existing learning analytics systems, increasing teachers' awareness. A two-layer evaluation methodology positively assessed the capacity of our method to analyze IED and provided initial evidence that the insights generated offer statistically significant indicators that impact students' activity during the delivery of these IED. The insights of this work aim to contribute in the field of cognitive data analytics for teaching and learning, by investigating new ways to combine analyses of the educational design and students' activity, and inform teachers' reflection from a holistic perspective.
This essay examines the challenges of science education in the 21 st century with regard to social, cultural, economic, political and pedagogical issues impacting and influencing instructional methodology and understanding of the role of science education as it affects individual, social organizational and societal progress and functions. Drawing upon some strong practical, philosophical, and pedagogical-methodological and theoretical ideas and propositions from Hodson, as espoused in his book Looking to the Future: Building a Curriculum for Social Activism, the author essentially responds to this extremely rich scholarly volume in scientific literacy, philosophy, and history by supporting Hodson’s advocacy of an action-oriented and issues-based curriculum as the key to renewing and activating scientific literacy to increase students’ performance and national competitiveness in the global economy. The author extricates from literature, not only strong rationale for the renewal and transformational of science education in terms of perspective and approach, but also takes a critical approach in examining some of Hodson’s contentions regarding strategies in confronting socioscientifc issues as major pathways to the teaching and learning of science. The author examines problems, challenges, and the new opportunities that have emerged and are emerging in contemporary environmental, social, cultural and political contexts for science education to experience transformation in several ways: as a field of study, as an applied body of knowledge, as a way of living and as a competitive tool and strategy important to national goals and posterity.
Building upon discussions by the Assessment Working Group at EDUsummIT 2013, this article reviews recent developments in technology enabled assessments of collaborative problem solving in order to point out where computerised assessments are particularly useful (and where non-computerised assessments need to be retained or developed) while assuring that the purposes and designs are transparent and empowering for teachers and learners. Technology enabled assessments of higher order critical thinking in a collaborative social context can provide data about the actions, communications and products created by a learner in a designed task space. Principled assessment design is required in order for such a space to provide trustworthy evidence of learning, and the design must incorporate and take account of the engagement of the audiences for the assessment as well as vary with the purposes and contexts of the assessment. Technology enhanced assessment enables in-depth unobtrusive documentation or ‘quiet assessment’ of the many layers and dynamics of authentic performance and allows greater flexibility and dynamic interactions in and among the design features. Most important for assessment FOR learning, are interactive features that allow the learner to turn up or down the intensity, amount and sharpness of the information needed for self-absorption and adoption of the feedback. Most important in assessment OF learning, are features that compare the learner with external standards of performance. Most important in assessment AS learning, are features that allow multiple performances and a wide array of affordances for authentic action, communication and the production of artefacts.
This article is the second of two articles in this special issue that were developed following discussions of the Assessment Working Group at EDUsummIT 2013. The article extends the analysis of assessments of collaborative problem solving (CPS) to examine the significance of the data concerning this complex assessment problem and then for educational assessment more broadly. The article discusses four measurement challenges of data science or ‘big data’ in educational assessments that are enabled by technology: 1. Dealing with change over time via time-based data. 2. How a digital performance space’s relationships interact with learner actions, communications and products. 3. How layers of interpretation are formed from translations of atomistic data into meaningful larger units suitable for making inferences about what someone knows and can do. 4. How to represent the dynamics of interactions between and among learners who are being assessed by their interactions with each other as well as with digital resources and agents in digital performance spaces. Because of the movement from paper-based tests to online learning, and in order to make progress on these challenges, the authors call for the restructuring of training of the next generation of researchers and psychometricians to specialize in data science in technology enabled assessments.
This paper reports on a three-year study conducted in Western Australia, which commenced in January 2008, and was completed by December 2010. It concerns the potential to use digital technologies to represent the output from assessment tasks in two senior secondary courses: Engineering Studies and Physical Education Studies.
The general aim of this study was to explore the potential of various digitally based forms for external assessment for senior secondary courses in terms of manageability, cost, validity and
reliability. The problem being addressed in this research is the need to provide students with assessment opportunities that are authentic, where many outcomes do not lend themselves to
being assessed using pen and paper over a three-hour period, and that are also able to be reliably and manageably assessed by external examiners. These two courses both have a significant performancebased component, and a certain level of dissonance results when students have performance expectations, and teachers teach to the theory examination in an attempt to
ensure high pass rates.
In Engineering Studies, a computer-managed examination was designed that consisted of a design task that was broken down into a number of timed activities. Students were paced through each activity, recording their input in the form of a portfolio. Input consisted of text, graphics through a camera and voice, and the exam outputs were uploaded to an online repository for marking by external assessors.
In Physical Education Studies, a digitally based examination was designed that incorporated four interrelatedcomponents. Two of these required computerbased responses and two were videorecorded practical performance components. Digital output from all parts of the task was
collated into evidence portfolios and uploaded to an online repository for marking by external assessors.
This paper focuses specifically on issues of authenticity in relation to the examination tasks designed for each course. It discusses longstanding concerns relating to authenticity associated with courses with a strong performance dimension in which there tends to be a dissonance between the teaching and learning of theory and practice. Ways in which digital technologies were utilised to address these issues are critically examined in this research.
Recent years have seen a growing recognition of the value of positioning teaching as a design science. In this context, we see a great potential in the possible synergy between educational design, learning analytics and teacher inquiry. This synergy is demonstrated in the form of Computer Supported Curriculum Analysis, Design and Evaluation for Science Education in Africa (CASCADE-SEA), a computer-based support tool that assists teachers in creating exemplary lesson materials for secondary level science and mathematics in southern Africa. The purpose of the present study is to articulate how teachers might be supported in the synergistic processes that are integral to educational design. It does so by revisiting existing data collected during the design, development and evaluation of CASCADE-SEA, and sharing the results of a retrospective analysis in light of recent developments in learning analytics, learning design and teacher inquiry. The retrospective analysis revealed insights related to each of the aforementioned themes. For learning analytics, those were social structures of learning and teaching practices; pedagogy-driven collection and analysis of data; and the use of data to inform teaching and learning. For learning design, the findings pertained to the language, practices and tools used to achieve particular educational aims. For teacher inquiry, the findings relate to the empirical process of question formulation, methods selection, collection and analysis of data, and sharing/reflecting on the findings as well as overall process. Based on the retrospective analysis, design considerations are offered for a modern application to replace the practical and effective desktop software that was developed during the 1990s.
Inquiry-based learning is gaining popularity in science curricula, international research and development projects as well as teaching. One of the underlying reasons is that its success can be significantly improved due to the recent technical developments that allow the inquiry process to be supported by electronic learning environments. Inquiry-based learning is often organized into inquiry phases that together form an inquiry cycle. However, different variations on what is called the inquiry cycle can be found throughout the literature. The current article focuses on identifying and summarizing the core features of inquiry-based learning by means of a systematic literature review and develops a synthesized inquiry cycle that combines the strengths of existing inquiry-based learning frameworks. The review was conducted using the EBSCO host Library; a total of 32 articles describing inquiry phases or whole inquiry cycles were selected based on specific search criteria. An analysis of the articles resulted in the identification of five distinct general inquiry phases: Orientation, Conceptualization, Investigation, Conclusion, and Discussion. Some of these phases are divided into sub-phases. In particular, the Conceptualization phase is divided into two (alternative) sub-phases, Questioning and Hypothesis Generation; the Investigation phase is divided into three sub-phases, Exploration or Experimentation leading to Data Interpretation; and the Discussion phase is divided into two sub-phases, Reflection and Communication. No framework bringing together all of these phases and sub-phases was found in the literature. Thus, a synthesized framework was developed to describe an inquiry cycle in which all of these phases and sub-phases would be present. In this framework, inquiry-based learning begins with Orientation and flows through Conceptualization to Investigation, where several cycles are possible. Inquiry-based learning usually ends with the Conclusion phase. The Discussion phase (which includes Communication and Reflection) is potentially present at every point during inquiry-based learning and connects to all the other phases, because it can occur at any time during (discussion in-action) or after inquiry-based learning when looking back (discussion on-action).
Authentic assessment is important in formal and informal learning. Technology has the potential to be used to support the assessment of higher order skills particularly with respect to real life tasks. In particular, the use of mobile devices allows the learner to increase her interactions with physical objects, various environments (indoors and outdoors spaces), augmented digital information and with peers. Those interactions can be monitored and automatically assessed in a way that is similar to traditional objective tests. However, in order to facilitate a meaningful interaction with formative purposes, we propose that the assessment process can be assisted through scaffolding mechanisms that transform the mobile system into a ‘more capable peer’. In this context, this paper presents the m-AssIST model which captures the necessary emergent properties to design and analyse m-assessment activities. The model is used to analyse the benefits and limitations of existing m-test based systems. This paper discusses the importance of meaningful interactions, and the provision of scaffolding mechanisms to support formative and authentic assessment.
This position paper highlights the relevance of domain-general problem solving skills for a comprehensive approach to contemporary education. We argue that education in the 21st century needs to be comprehensive in the sense that it should equip students with domain-general problem solving skills in addition to domain-specific factual knowledge and problem solving strategies. We argue that contemporary educational systems fall short of addressing the societal and individual needs to teach and to foster domain-general problem solving and that education needs to be extended. To this end, researchers face three main challenges: (1) to increase the relevant stakeholders’ awareness of the existence and the importance of domain-general problem solving skills, (2) to optimize the ways in which such skills can be assessed, and (3) to explore ways to foster students in developing and maintaining these skills.
This paper proposes an analysis of current research in learning design (LD), a field aiming to improve the quality of educational interventions by supporting their design and fostering the sharing and reuse of innovative practices among educators. This research area, at the moment, focuses on three main strands: the representations that can be used as a common language to communicate about pedagogical plans and other half-fabricates of the design process, the methodological approaches to LD and the tools that support the LD process. For each of the three strands, the current landscape is discussed, pointing at open issues and indicating future research perspectives, with particular attention to the contribution that learning analytics can make to transform LD from a craft, based on experience, intuition and tacit knowledge, into a mature research area, grounded on data concerning the learning process and hence supporting enquiry while teachers design, run and evaluate the learning process.
The advancement of mobile device and wireless communication technologies is having a great influence on the design concept of learning activities. In this study, we attempt to integrate field study into the inquiry-based mobile learning model; moreover, a mobile learning environment that allows students to access both physical and virtual resources is developed accordingly. During the in-field learning activity, the mobile learning system is able to present the learning tasks, guide the students to visit the real-world learning targets for exploration, and provide them with supplementary materials via the mobile devices. The aim of this research focuses on the effects of this mobile learning model on students' cognitive load and learning achievements. The 51 sixth graders who participated in this research were assigned to an experimental and a control group. From the pre and posttests as well as the cognitive load questionnaire, it was found that the students who learned with the inquiry-based mobile learning approach had better learning achievement and less cognitive load than those who learned with the traditional approach. Therefore, it is concluded that the mobile learning model has positive effects on elementary students in local culture learning.
Curricular reform efforts are underway in many countries, focused on adopting inquiry-based approaches to teaching and learning. Therefore, it is increasingly important to understand what outcomes students attain in inquiry environments. Derived from a literature review, a 23-item, criterion-referenced inventory is presented for theoretically implied and empirically based outcomes or benefits for students engaging in inquiry, and includes research on overlapping pedagogical topics such as discovery learning and problem-based learning. Student outcomes include knowledge and skills, intrinsic motivation, and development of expertise, among others. Supporting research is primarily available in the areas of cognitive and affective outcomes (e.g., knowledge, skills, motivation, attitudes, and creativity). This list can be used as a starting point for research or converted into professional development tools.
Calls for reform in university education have prompted a movement from teacher-to student-centered course design, and included developments such as peer-teaching, problem and inquiry-based learning. In the sciences, inquiry-based learning has been widely promoted to increase literacy and skill development, but there has been little comparison to more traditional curricula. In this study, we demonstrated greater improvements in students' science literacy and research skills using inquiry lab instruction. We also found that inquiry students gained self-confidence in scientific abilities, but traditional students' gain was greater –likely indicating that the traditional curriculum promoted over-confidence. Inquiry lab students valued more authentic science exposure but acknowledged that experiencing the complexity and frustrations faced by practicing scientists was challenging, and may explain the widespread reported student resistance to inquiry curricula.
The purpose of this study was to investigate 8th graders with different learning styles their motivation outcomes after implementing
10 weeks (40 hours) inquiry-based teaching. Two hundreds and fifty four 8th graders were involved in experimental group, this
group of students experienced inquiry instruction. Two hundreds and thirty two 8th graders were involved in control group,
they were taught by traditional science teaching. Students' motivation toward science learning questionnaire (SMTSL) (Tuan,
Chin & Shieh, 2005) were implemented in both groups in the beginning and at the end of the study. Students in the experimental
group filled out learning preference questionnaire (Lumsdaine & Lumsdaine, 1995) in the beginning of the study. Forty students
which represent different learning styles were chosen from five experimental classes to conduct post-test interview. Paired
t-test, MANOVA, analytic inductive methods were used for analyzing both qualitative and quantitative data. Findings indicated
that after inquiry instruction students' motivation increased significantly (p<.001) than students who enrolled in traditional teaching. Four different learning styles of students increased significantly
(p<.005) in SMTSL scales: self-efficacy, active learning strategies, science learning value, performance goal and achievement
goal. No significant difference was found among four learning styles of students' motivation after inquiry teaching. Interview
data supported that most of students with different learning styles were willing to participate in the inquiry learning activities,
while they hold different reasons for their engagement. Findings confirm inquiry-based science teaching can motivate students
with different learning styles in science learning.
The instructional technology community is in the midst of a philosophical shift from a behaviorist to a constructivist framework, a move that may begin to address the growing rift between formal school learning and real-life learning. One theory of learning that has the capacity to promote authentic learning is that of situated learning.
The purpose of this three-part study was first, to identify critical characteristics of a situated learning environment from the extensive literature base on the subject; second, to operationalize the critical characteristics of a situated learning environment by designing a multimedia program that incorporated the identified characteristics; and third, to investigate students' perceptions of their experiences using a multimedia package based on a situated learning framework.
The learning environment, for preservice teachers, comprised a multimedia program on assessment in mathematics together with recommended implementation conditions for the classroom. Eight students were observed and interviewed to explore their perceptions of the situated learning environment. Findings suggest that the use of the situated learning framework provided effective instructional design guidelines for the design of an environment for the acquisition of advanced knowledge.
Traditional engineering instruction is deductive, beginning with theories and progressing to the applications of those theories. Alternative teaching approaches are more inductive. Topics are introduced by presenting specific observations, case studies or problems, and theories are taught or the students are helped to discover them only after the need to know them has been established. This study reviews several of the most commonly used inductive teaching methods, including inquiry learning, problem-based learning, project-based learning, case-based teaching, discovery learning, and just-in-time teaching. The paper defines each method, highlights commonalities and specific differences, and reviews research on the effectiveness of the methods. While the strength of the evidence varies from one method to another, inductive methods are consistently found to be at least equal to, and in general more effective than, traditional deductive methods for achieving a broad range of learning outcomes.
Collaborative inquiry learning is one of the most challenging and exciting ventures for today's schools. It aims at bringing a new and promising culture of teaching and learning into the classroom where students in groups engage in self-regulated learning activities supported by the teacher. It is expected that this way of learning fosters students' motivation and interest in science, that they learn to perform steps of inquiry similar to scientists and that they gain knowledge on scientific processes. Starting from general pedagogical reflections and science standards, the article reviews some prominent models of inquiry learning. This comparison results in a set of inquiry processes being the basis for cooperation in the scientific network NetCoIL. Inquiry learning is conceived in several ways with emphasis on different processes. For an illustration of the spectrum, some main conceptions of inquiry and their focuses are described. In the next step, the article describes exemplary computer tools and environments from within and outside the NetCoIL network that were designed to support processes of collaborative inquiry learning. These tools are analysed by describing their functionalities as well as effects on student learning known from the literature. The article closes with challenges for further developments elaborated by the NetCoIL network. © [email protected]
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There is a major mismatch between opportunity and action in most education systems today. It revolves around what is meant by "science education," a term that is incorrectly defined in current usage. Rather than learning how to think scientifically, students are generally being told about science and asked to remember facts. This disturbing situation must be corrected if science education is to have any hope of taking its proper place as an essential part of the education of students everywhere.
This chapter focuses on the policy environments influencing the adoption of 21st century skills in general and the results and products of the ATC21STM project in terms of its research and assessment strategies in particular (The acronym ATC21STM has been globally trademarked. For purposes of simplicity the acronym is presented throughout the chapter as ATC21S.). It offers a policy analysis for which information was collected from interviews with country project managers, their representatives, other participants in the ATC21S project and the international assessment community, and advisory board members from international organizations and the funding companies, supplemented by published information about national and state education systems.
It was the belief that assessment is the driving force of curriculum that motivated the authors of this monograph to embark on a program of research and development into the use of digital technologies to support more authentic forms of assessment. They perceived that in responding to the educational needs of children in the 21st Century, curriculum needed to become more relevant and engaging, but that change was unlikely without commensurate change in methods and forms of assessment. This was particularly true for the high-stakes assessment typically conducted at the conclusion of schooling as this tended to become the focus of the implemented curriculum throughout the years of school. Therefore the authors chose to focus on this area of assessment with the understanding that this would inform assessment policy and practices generally in schools. This book provides a conceptual framework and outlines a project in which digital methods of representing students performance were developed and tested in the subject areas of Applied Information Technology, Engineering, Italian and Physical Education. The methodology and data collection processes are discussed, and the data is analysed, providing the basis for conclusions and recommendations.
The purpose of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of guided-inquiry approach in science classes over existing science and technology curriculum in developing content-based science achievement, science process skills, and attitude toward science of grade level 6 students in Turkey. Non-equivalent control group quasi-experimental design was used to investigate the treatment effect. There were 162 students in the experimental group and 142 students in the control group. Both the experimental and control group students took the Achievement Test in Reproduction, Development, and Growth in Living Things (RDGLT), Science Process Skills Test, and Attitudes Toward Science Questionnaire, as pre-test and post-test. Repeated analysis of variance design was used in analyzing the data. Both the experimental and control group students were taught in RDGLT units for 22 class hours. The results indicated the positive effect of guided-inquiry approach on the Turkish students' cognitive as well as affective characteristics. The guided inquiry enhanced the experimental group students' understandings of the science concepts as well as the inquiry skills more than the control group students. Similarly, the experimental group students improved their attitudes toward science more than the control group students as a result of treatment. The guided inquiry seems a transition between traditional teaching method and student-centred activities in the Turkish schools.
The goal of the Inquiry Synthesis Project was to synthesize findings from research conducted between 1984 and 2002 to address the research question, What is the impact of inquiry science instruction on K–12 student outcomes? The timeframe of 1984 to 2002 was selected to continue a line of synthesis work last completed in 1983 by Bredderman [Bredderman [1983] Review of Educational Research 53: 499–518] and Shymansky, Kyle, and Alport [Shymansky et al. [1983] Journal of Research in Science Teaching 20: 387–404], and to accommodate a practicable cut-off date given the research project timeline, which ran from 2001 to 2006. The research question for the project was addressed by developing a conceptual framework that clarifies and specifies what is meant by “inquiry-based science instruction,” and by using a mixed-methodology approach to analyze both numerical and text data describing the impact of instruction on K–12 student science conceptual learning. Various findings across 138 analyzed studies indicate a clear, positive trend favoring inquiry-based instructional practices, particularly instruction that emphasizes student active thinking and drawing conclusions from data. Teaching strategies that actively engage students in the learning process through scientific investigations are more likely to increase conceptual understanding than are strategies that rely on more passive techniques, which are often necessary in the current standardized-assessment laden educational environment. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 47: 474–496, 2010
Current theories hold that authentic learning activities are the key to developing understanding that will serve learners beyond the classroom. Adapting the practices of science to classrooms can provide the benefits of authenticity for science learning. However, in adapting science practice for learning environments, it is important to retain not just the tools and techniques, but the attitudes and social interactions that characterise science practice. Technology can play an important role in supporting authentic scientific activity in the classroom through scientific and communications tools that are adapted for learners. However, attention to new curriculum structures and teacher support are also essential. In this chapter, I explore these issues through a case study of the CoVis Project and a discussion of the common themes that underlie a number of projects that are investigating the use of technology to support more authentic science practices in science classrooms. 1.0
The BSCS 5E instructional model: Origins and effectiveness
- R W Bybee
- J A Taylor
- A Gardner
- P Van Scotter
- J C Powell
- A Westbrook
- RW Bybee
Realizing authentic scientific learning through the adaptation of scientific practice
- D C Edelson
- DC Edelson
Inquiry and the national science education standards. A guide for teaching and learning
- National Research Council
Investigating the inquiry-based instruction effects on the 8th graders’ perceptions about learning environments in the physical science
- C C Tsai
- H L Tuan
Assessing problem solving competence through inquiry-based teaching in school science education
- P Zervas
- S Sotiriou
- R Tiemann
- D G Sampson