Teacher use of evidence to customize inquiry science instruction

This study investigated how professional development featuring evidence‐based customization of technology‐enhanced curriculum projects can improve inquiry science teaching and student knowledge integration in earth science. Participants included three middle school sixth‐grade teachers and their classes of students (N = 787) for three consecutive years. Teachers used evidence from their student work to revise the curriculum projects and rethink their teaching strategies. Data were collected through teacher interviews, written reflections, classroom observations, curriculum artifacts, and student assessments. Results suggest that the detailed information about the learning activities of students provided by the assessments embedded in the online curriculum motivated curricular and pedagogical customizations that resulted in both teacher and student learning. Customizations initiated by teachers included revisions of embedded questions, additions of hands‐on investigations, and modifications of teaching strategies. Student performance improved across the three cohorts of students with each year of instructional customization. Coupling evidence from student work with revisions of curriculum and instruction has promise for strengthening professional development and improving science learning. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 47: 1037–1063, 2010     

Learning by progressive inquiry in a physics lesson with the support of cloud-based technology

ABSTRACT

Background

Inquiry-based learning has been widely adopted in educational practice especially in science education. Scaffolding plays an important role in fostering learning in sophisticated inquiry. Meanwhile, it is important not to undermine the open-endedness of inquiry activities and the nature of student-centred learning.     

Teacher and student reflections on ICT-rich science inquiry

Background: Inquiry learning in science provides authentic and relevant contexts in which students can create knowledge to solve problems, make decisions and find solutions to issues in today’s world. The use of electronic networks can facilitate this interaction, dialogue and sharing, and adds a new dimension to classroom pedagogy.

Purpose: This is a report of teacher and student reflections on some of the tensions, reconciliations and feelings they experienced as they worked together to engage in inquiry learning. The study sought to find out how networked ICT use might offer new and different ways for students to engage with, explore and communicate science ideas within inquiry.

Sample: This project developed case studies with 6 science teachers of year 9 and 10 students, with an average age of 13 and 14 years in three New Zealand high schools. Teacher participants in the project had varying levels of understanding and experience with inquiry learning in science. Teacher knowledge and experience with ICT were equally diverse.

Design and Methods: Teachers and researchers developed initially in a joint workshop a shared understanding of inquiry, and how this could be enacted. During implementation, the researchers observed the inquiry projects in the classrooms and then, together with the teachers, reviewed and analysed the data that had been collected.

Results: At the beginning of the project, some of the teachers and students were tentative: inquiry based teaching supported by ICT meant initially that the teachers were hesitant in letting go some of the control they felt they had over students learning, and the students felt insecure in adopting some responsibility for their own learning. Over time a sense of trust and ease developed and this ‘control of learning’ balance moved from what was traditionally accepted, but not without modifications and reservations.

Conclusions: There is no clear pathway to follow in moving towards ICT-supported science inquiry in secondary schools. The experience of the teacher, the funds of knowledge the students bring to the classroom, the level of technological availability in the school and the ability of the students are all variables which determine the nature of the experience.     

Scaffolding students' use of learner-generated content in a technology-enhanced inquiry learning environment

Having students inspect and use each other's work is a promising way to advance inquiry-based science learning. Research has nevertheless shown that additional guidance is needed for students to take full advantage of the work produced by their peers. The present study investigated whether scaffolding through an integrated support tool could bring about the desired effect. This tool was embedded in an online inquiry learning environment and outlined the steps in searching for information in peer-created concept maps. It also contained specific directions to assess the quality of the retrieved information. The effectiveness of this search guidance tool was investigated during an inquiry-based science project. Main results indicated that high school students who were supported by the tool (n?=?19) developed a more differentiated and interconnected conceptual understanding than students who did not receive this scaffold (n?=?23). However, the search guidance tool also seemed to put additional demands on students' self-regulatory abilities, and might therefore require some practice or regulatory support to reach its full potential.     

Engaging in and engaging with research: teacher inquiry and development

The connection between teacher inquiry, professional development and school improvement was recognised 30 years ago by Lawrence Stenhouse. Stenhouse contributed many valuable insights into the role of practitioner enquiry in creating and utilising knowledge about teaching and learning, much of which is still to be applied systematically in teacher education and professional development. This paper draws on the Learning to Learn Phase 3 Evaluation, a three‐year‐action research project in which teachers in primary and secondary schools across the UK completed three cycles of practitioner inquiry to explore tools, pedagogies and other innovations which would promote dispositions of ‘learning to learn’ (L2L). The paper focuses on identifying those aspects of being involved in L2L that support teachers’ learning and the way that the teachers themselves understand the impact on their professional development. Data from over 60 semi‐structured interviews undertaken over the three years of the project, the case study reports compiled by teachers at the end of each year of the project and collaborative workshops involving teachers and university researchers as co‐inquirers are used to explore teachers’ learning. Qualitative methods are used to develop a thematic analysis of the interviews, case studies and the teachers’ understanding of the relationships between inquiry, research and continuing professional development (CPD) in order to identify categories and generate key concepts that can inform a theoretical understanding of the impact of professional inquiry on teachers’ learning. The findings contribute to our understanding of the role of inquiry and research in schools in supporting professional learning by suggesting how tools and models of working are developed.     

Open educational resources in support of science learning: tools for inquiry and observation

This article focuses on the potential of free tools, particularly inquiry tools for influencing participation in twenty-first-century learning in science, as well as influencing the development of communities around tools. Two examples are presented: one on the development of an open source tool for structured inquiry learning that can bridge the formal/informal spaces for inquiry learning. This is contrasted with an example of the use of free tools and community development for observation of scientific phenomena supported by open educational resources (OER) with a citizen science perspective. The article provides an assessment of how the availability of the resources has a potential for shaping the communities using OER for science learning and a discussion of the means of supporting inquiry.     

Personal inquiry: innovations in participatory design and models for inquiry learning

This paper describes a participatory design approach to the development of inquiry‐based learning supported through a technology toolkit. The work is part of an interdisciplinary project – Personal Inquiry (PI). The paper focuses on the approach we adopted, concentrating in particular on the two mediating artefacts we used to guide and frame the design process during two design workshops. The first mediating artefact used was an inquiry framework developed as part of the wider PI project and the second was Kellett’s enquiry research bubbles, which is a framework to guide enquiry‐based thinking processes. The paper reports on data collected during the workshops and reflects on the value of the approach adopted. The paper also explores the PI‐team’s own reflections on the design process and its role in the overall project.     

Designing Blended Inquiry Learning in a Laboratory Context: A Study of Incorporating Hands-On and Virtual Laboratories

This article reports on the development of a methodology that integrates virtual and hands-on inquiry in a freshman introductory biology course. Using a two time × two order-condition design, an effective combination (blend) of the two environments was evaluated with 39 freshman biology participants. The quantitative results documented no significant effect of presentation order but demonstrated a significant effect of the combined learning experience. The qualitative results showed a strong preference by students for the virtual work preceding the hands-on laboratory. The study provides practitioners an effective alternative to traditional instructional practices by combining virtual and hands-on inquiry learning.

The influence of prior knowledge on experiment design guidance in a science inquiry context

Designing and conducting sound and informative experiments is an important aspect of inquiry learning. Students, however, often design experiments that do not allow them to reach conclusions. Considering the difficulties students experience with the process of designing experiments, additional guidance in the form of an Experiment Design Tool (EDT) was developed, together with reflection questions. In this study, 147 pre-university students worked in an online inquiry learning environment on buoyancy and Archimedes’ principle. Students were randomly assigned to one of three conditions, each of which contained a different version of the EDT. Since students’ prior knowledge has been found to influence the amount and type of guidance they need, the versions of the tool differed with respect to the level of guidance provided. A pre- and post-test were administered to assess students’ conceptual knowledge. No overall differences between conditions were found. In a subsequent analysis, students were classified as either low, low-intermediate-, high-intermediate, or high prior knowledge students. For Archimedes’ principle we found that low-intermediate prior knowledge students gained significantly more conceptual knowledge than low prior knowledge students in the fully guided condition. It is hypothesised that students need at least some prior knowledge in order to fully benefit from the guidance offered.     

Learning with collaborative inquiry: a science learning environment for secondary students

When inquiry-based learning is designed for a collaborative context, the interactions that arise in the learning environment can become fairly complex. While the learning effectiveness of such learning environments has been reported in the literature, there have been fewer studies on the students’ learning processes. To address this, the article presents a study of science learning in a computer-supported learning environment called Collaborative Science Inquiry (CSI), which integrates guided inquiry principles for activity design, employs modelling and visualisation tools for promoting conceptual understanding and incorporates key computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) elements for enabling students’ collaboration. With the aim of understanding the process of students’ conceptual changes supported by the CSI learning environment as used in a secondary school, data on students’ test achievements, responses to learning tasks and peer discussions in collaboration were collected, analysed and discussed. The results of the qualitative and quantitative data analysis indicated that guided inquiry coupled with CSCL elements facilitated by the CSI system can engage students in inquiry activities and promote their conceptual understanding in a progressive way.     

Distinguishing complex ideas about climate change: knowledge integration vs. specific guidance

We compared two forms of automated guidance to support students’ understanding of climate change in an online inquiry science unit. For specific guidance, we directly communicated ideas that were missing or misrepresented in student responses. For knowledge integration guidance, we provided hints or suggestions to motivate learners to analyze features of their response and seek more information. We guided both student-constructed energy flow diagrams and short essays at total of five times across an approximately week-long curriculum unit. Our results indicate that while specific guidance typically produced larger accuracy gains on responses within the curriculum unit, knowledge integration guidance produced stronger outcomes on a novel essay at posttest. Closer analysis revealed an association between the time spent revisiting a visualization and posttest scores on this summary essay, only for those students in the knowledge integration condition. We discuss how these gains in knowledge integration extend laboratory results related to ‘desirable difficulties’ and show how autonomous inquiry can be fostered through automated guidance.     

An investigation of teacher impact on student inquiry science performance using a hierarchical linear model

Teachers play a central role in inquiry science classrooms. In this study, we investigate how seven teacher variables (i.e., gender, experience, perceived importance of inquiry and traditional teaching, workshop attendance, partner teacher, use of technology) affect student knowledge integration understanding of science topics drawing on previous research. Using a two‐level hierarchical linear model, we analyze year‐end knowledge integration performance of 4,513 students taught by 40 teachers across five states. Results indicate that students of teachers who value inquiry teaching strategies have significantly higher levels of knowledge integration understanding than those of teachers who believe in traditional teaching methods. In addition, workshop attendance and having a partner teacher teaching the same unit in the same school also have a positive impact on students' knowledge integration levels. The results underscore the importance of professional development and collegial support in enhancing student success in inquiry science. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 47:807–819, 2010     

Preservice elementary teachers' perceptions of their science laboratory instructors in a phenomena-based laboratory and how it impacts their conceptual development

Phenomena-based approaches have become popular for elementary school teachers to engage children's innate curiosity in the natural world. However, integrating such phenomena-based approaches in existing science courses within teacher education programs present potential challenges for both preservice elementary teachers (PSETs) and for laboratory instructors, both of whom may have had limited opportunities to learn or teach science within the student and instructor roles inherent within these approaches. This study uses a convergent parallel mixed-methods approach to investigate PSETs' perceptions of their laboratory instructor's role within a Physical Science phenomena-based laboratory curriculum and how it impacts their conceptual development (2 instructors/121 students). We also examine how the two laboratory instructors' discursive moves within the laboratory align with their's and PSETs' perceptions of the instructor role. Qualitative data includes triangulation between a student questionnaire, an instructor questionnaire, and video classroom observations, while quantitative data includes a nine-item open response pre-/post-semester conceptual test. Guided by Mortimer's and Scott's analytic framework, our findings show that students primarily perceive their instructors as a guide/facilitator or an authoritarian/evaluator. Using Linn's knowledge integration framework, analysis of pre-/post-tests indicates that student outcomes align with students' perceptions of their instructors, with students who perceive their instructor as a guide/facilitator having significantly better pre-/post-outcomes. Additional analysis of scientific discourse from the classroom observations illustrates how one instructor primarily supports PSETs' perspectives on authentic science learning through dialogic–interactive talk moves whereas the other instructor epistemologically stifles personally relevant investigations with authoritative–interactive or authoritative–noninteractive discourse moves. Overall, this study concludes by discussing challenges facing laboratory instructors that need careful consideration for phenomena-based approaches.     

Student leadership in small group science inquiry

Background: Science educators have sought to structure collaborative inquiry learning through the assignment of static group roles. This structural approach to student grouping oversimplifies the complexities of peer collaboration and overlooks the highly dynamic nature of group activity.

Purpose: This study addresses this issue of oversimplification of group dynamics by examining the social leadership structures that emerge in small student groups during science inquiry.

Sample: Two small student groups investigating the burning of a candle under a jar participated in this study.

Design and method: We used a mixed-method research approach that combined computational discourse analysis (computational quantification of social aspects of small group discussions) with microethnography (qualitative, in-depth examination of group discussions).

Results: While in one group social leadership was decentralized (i.e., students shared control over topics and tasks), the second group was dominated by a male student (centralized social leadership). Further, decentralized social leadership was found to be paralleled by higher levels of student cognitive engagement.

Conclusions: It is argued that computational discourse analysis can provide science educators with a powerful means of developing pedagogical models of collaborative science learning that take into account the emergent nature of group structures and highly fluid nature of student collaboration.