Relationships among informal learning environments,teaching procedures and scientific reasoning ability

Informal learning experiences have risen to the forefront of science education as being beneficial to students' learning. However, it is not clear in what ways such experiences may be beneficial to students; nor how informal learning experiences may interface with classroom science instruction. This study aims to acquire a better understanding of these issues by investigating one aspect of science learning, scientific reasoning ability, with respect to the students' informal learning experiences and classroom science instruction. Specifically, the purpose of this study was to investigate possible differences in students' scientific reasoning abilities relative to their informal learning environments (impoverished, enriched), classroom teaching experiences (non-inquiry, inquiry) and the interaction of these variables. The results of two-way ANOVAs indicated that informal learning environments and classroom science teaching procedures showed significant main effects on students' scientific reasoning abilities. Students with enriched informal learning environments had significantly higher scientific reasoning abilities compared to those with impoverished informal learning environments. Likewise, students in inquirybased science classrooms showed higher scientific reasoning abilities compared to those in non-inquiry science classrooms. There were no significant interaction effects. These results indicate the need for increased emphases on both informal learning opportunities and inquiry-based instruction in science.     

Over reported and misunderstood? A study of teachers’ reported enactment and knowledge of inquiry-based science teaching

Science education reforms worldwide call on teachers to engage students in investigative approaches to instruction, like inquiry. Studies of teacher self-reported enactment indicate that inquiry is used frequently in the classroom, suggesting a high level of proficiency with inquiry that would be amenable to inquiry reform. However, it is unclear whether the high frequency of self-report is based on sound knowledge inquiry. In the absence of sound knowledge, high rates of self-reported enactment would be suspect. We conducted a study to measure teachers’ knowledge of inquiry as it related to the known, high frequency of reported enactment. We developed a multidimensional survey instrument using US reform documents and administered it to 149 K–12 teachers at a national science teachers’ conference. The majority of the teachers surveyed did not report inquiry enactment based on well-structured knowledge of inquiry. Interviews with participants showed how teachers could readily map non-inquiry activities onto inquiry statements taken directly from reform documents. From these results we argue that teachers often believed they were enacting inquiry, when likely they were not. We further reason that teachers may struggle to interpret and enact inquiry-related requirements of science education reform and will need support distinguishing inquiry from non-inquiry practices.     

What are the relative effects of reasoning ability and prior knowledge on biology achievement in expository and inquiry classes?

What factor(s) influence the likelihood a student will succeed in college biology? Some researchers have found the primary determinant to be the student's prior knowledge of biology, while others have found it to be reasoning ability. Perhaps the ability of these factors to predict achievement depends on the instructional method employed. Expository instruction focuses primarily on facts and concepts. Therefore, perhaps the best predictor of achievement in expository classes is domain-specific prior knowledge. Inquiry instruction focuses more on how science is done, i.e., on scientific processes; therefore, perhaps the best predictor in inquiry classes is reasoning ability. This study was designed to test these hypotheses. Students enrolled in a nonmajors community college biology course were pretested to determine reasoning ability and prior knowledge. The number of previous biology courses was also recorded as an indicator of prior knowledge. After a semester of either expository or inquiry (learning-cycle) instruction, students took a comprehensive final examination. Reasoning ability but not prior knowledge or number of previous biology courses accounted for a significant amount of variance in final examination score in both instructional methods and with semester examination and quiz scores in inquiry classes. This suggests that reasoning ability limits achievement more than prior knowledge among these biology students, whether they are enrolled in expository or inquiry classes. Reasoning ability explained more of the variance in final examination scores for students enrolled in expository classes (18.8%) than in inquiry classes (7.2%). The reason for this is not clear, but significant improvements in reasoning were found in the inquiry but not in the expository classes. These improvements were accompanied by significant differences in achievement in the inquiry classes. Perhaps the reasoning improvement facilitated the better and more equal achievement for students in the inquiry classes, thus reducing the correlation between initial reasoning ability and final achievement. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 35: 89-103, 1998.     

Effects of explicit instruction on the acquisition of students’ science inquiry skills in grades 5 and 6 of primary education

In most primary science classes, students are taught science inquiry skills by way of learning by doing. Research shows that explicit instruction may be more effective. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of explicit instruction on the acquisition of inquiry skills. Participants included 705 Dutch fifth and sixth graders. Students in an explicit instruction condition received an eight-week intervention of explicit instruction on inquiry skills. In the lessons of the implicit condition, all aspects of explicit instruction were absent. Students in the baseline condition followed their regular science curriculum. In a quasi-experimental pre-test–post-test design, two paper-and-pencil tests and three performance assessments were used to examine the acquisition and transfer of inquiry skills. Additionally, questionnaires were used to measure metacognitive skills. The results of a multilevel analysis controlling for pre-tests, general cognitive ability, age, gender and grade level indicated that explicit instruction facilitates the acquisition of science inquiry skills. Specifically on the performance assessment with an unfamiliar topic, students in the explicit condition outperformed students of both the implicit and baseline condition. Therefore, this study provides a strong argument for including an explicit teaching method for developing inquiry skills in primary science education.     

The Nature of Laboratory Learning Experiences in Secondary Science Online

Teaching science to secondary students in an online environment is a growing international trend. Despite this trend, reports of empirical studies of this phenomenon are noticeably missing. With a survey concerning the nature of laboratory activities, this study describes the perspective of 35-secondary teachers from 15-different U.S. states who are teaching science online. The type and frequency of reported laboratory activities are consistent with the tradition of face-to-face instruction, using hands-on and simulated experiments. While provided examples were student-centered and required the collection of data, they failed to illustrate key components of the nature of science. The features of student-teacher interactions, student engagement, and nonverbal communications were found to be lacking and likely constitute barriers to the enactment of inquiry. These results serve as a call for research and development focused on using existing communication tools to better align with the activity of science such that the nature of science is more clearly addressed, the work of students becomes more collaborative and authentic, and the formative elements of a scientific inquiry are more accessible to all participants.     

Laboratory apprenticeship through a student research project

There has been a long tradition of laboratory activities associated with science instruction. Despite constructivists' claims advocating open-ended inquiry and mentoring, little is known about what students are thinking when engaged in laboratory activities. Laboratory learning as a process of cognitive apprenticeship has been proposed as a metaphor to guide teacher practice and student learning. The viability of cognitive apprenticeship for learning science in school is discussed in relation to findings from an investigation of a research project involving high school students working in a university chemical engineering laboratory under the mentorship of a university-based scientist. Data from a variety of techniques were analyzed in an interpretive style. We found that the students were empowered to seek empirically viable knowledge claims as they became independent researchers. However, we argue that caution needs to be exercised before advocating open-ended inquiry as a general model for laboratory learning without additional studies in different contexts. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Comparing Two Inquiry Professional Development Interventions in Science on Primary Students’ Questioning and Other Inquiry Behaviours

Developing students’ skills to pose and respond to questions and actively engage in inquiry behaviours enables students to problem solve and critically engage with learning and society. The aim of this study was to analyse the impact of providing teachers with an intervention in inquiry pedagogy alongside inquiry science curriculum in comparison to an intervention in non-inquiry pedagogy alongside inquiry science curriculum on student questioning and other inquiry behaviours. Teacher participants in the comparison condition received training in four inquiry-based science units and in collaborative strategic reading. The experimental group, the community of inquiry (COI) condition, received training in facilitating a COI in addition to training in the same four inquiry-based science units. This study involved 227 students and 18 teachers in 9 primary schools across Brisbane, Australia. The teachers were randomly allocated by school to one of the two conditions. The study followed the students across years 6 and 7 and students’ discourse during small group activities was recorded, transcribed and coded for verbal inquiry behaviours. In the second year of the study, students in the COI condition demonstrated a significantly higher frequency of procedural and substantive higher-order thinking questions and other inquiry behaviours than those in the comparison condition. Implementing a COI within an inquiry science curriculum develops students’ questioning and science inquiry behaviours and allows teachers to foster inquiry skills predicated by the Australian Science Curriculum. Provision of inquiry science curriculum resources alone is not sufficient to promote the questioning and other verbal inquiry behaviours predicated by the Australian Science Curriculum.     

The relative effects and equity of inquiry‐based and commonplace science teaching on students' knowledge,reasoning, and argumentation

We conducted a laboratory‐based randomized control study to examine the effectiveness of inquiry‐based instruction. We also disaggregated the data by student demographic variables to examine if inquiry can provide equitable opportunities to learn. Fifty‐eight students aged 14–16 years old were randomly assigned to one of two groups. Both groups of students were taught toward the same learning goals by the same teacher, with one group being taught from inquiry‐based materials organized around the BSCS 5E Instructional Model, and the other from materials organized around commonplace teaching strategies as defined by national teacher survey data. Students in the inquiry‐based group reached significantly higher levels of achievement than students experiencing commonplace instruction. This effect was consistent across a range of learning goals (knowledge, reasoning, and argumentation) and time frames (immediately following the instruction and 4 weeks later). The commonplace science instruction resulted in a detectable achievement gap by race, whereas the inquiry‐based materials instruction did not. We discuss the implications of these findings for the body of evidence on the effectiveness of teaching science as inquiry; the role of instructional models and curriculum materials in science teaching; addressing achievement gaps; and the competing demands of reform and accountability. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 47:276–301, 2010     

科学教学中的"探究"释义

根据教学论,科学教学中的“探究”可有三层含义:作为教学目标,指学生应掌握的科学探究技能,要理解的科学探究特性;作为教学原则,指激发学生积极探究未知、主动建构意义的基本教学要求;作为教学方法,指学生在教师指导下所采用的类似科学探究过程的学习方式或程序。     

Web-based Collaborative Inquiry to Bridge Gaps in Secondary Science Education

As secondary students’ interest in science is decreasing, schools are faced with the challenging task of providing adequate instruction to engage students—and more particularly the disadvantaged students—to learn science and improve their science inquiry skills. In this respect, the integration of Web-based collaborative inquiry can be seen as a possible answer. However, the differential effects of Web-based inquiry on disadvantaged students have barely been studied. To bridge this gap, this study deals with the implementation of a Web-based inquiry project in 19 secondary classes and focuses specifically on gender, achievement level, and academic track. Multilevel analysis was applied to uncover the effects on knowledge acquisition, inquiry skills, and interest in science. The study provides quantitative evidence not only that a Web-based collaborative inquiry project is an effective approach for science learning, but that this approach can also offer advantages for students who are not typically successful in science or who are not enrolled in a science track. This approach can contribute to narrowing the gap between boys and girls in science and can give low-achieving students and general-track students an opportunity to develop confidence and skills for learning science, bringing them to a performance level that is closer to that of high-achieving students.     

Investigating the Effectiveness of Inquiry Instruction on the Motivation of Different Learning Styles Students

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. An erratum to this article is available at .     

Learning from inquiry‐based laboratories in nonmajor biology: An interpretive study of the relationships among inquiry experience,epistemologies, and conceptual growth

The use of inquiry‐based laboratory in college science classes is on the rise. This study investigated how five nonmajor biology students learned from an inquiry‐based laboratory experience. Using interpretive data analysis, the five students' conceptual ecologies, learning beliefs, and science epistemologies were explored. Findings indicated that students with constructivist learning beliefs tended to add more meaningful conceptual understandings during inquiry labs than students with positivist learning beliefs. All students improved their understanding of experiment in biology. Implications for the teaching of biology labs are discussed. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 40: 986–1024, 2003     

Inquiry Science: The Gateway to English Language Proficiency

This paper presents findings from a 4-year project that developed and implemented a blended inquiry science and English Language Development (ELD) program in a large urban California school district. The sample included over 2,000 students in Kindergarten through 5th grade. Participating students’ English and science achievement was compared to a similar group of students who were using the district’s established English language development curriculum. Student performance on statemandated English and science assessments were analyzed using Mann–Whitney U tests for overall performance and by number of years of treatment. Modest but statistically significant improvement was found for students who participated in the blended program. Results from this study suggest that restricting instructional minutes for science to provide additional time for ELD and English language arts may be unnecessary. Rather, allowing consistent time for science instruction that incorporates ELD instruction along with inquiry science experiences may provide the authentic and purposeful context students need to develop new language without restricting access to science content.     

Relationship between perceived and observed student-centred learning environments in Qatari elementary mathematics and science classrooms

Recently, Qatar established educational reform in charter (independent) schools focusing on curriculum standards, student-centred teaching, standards-based assessment, English as the language of instruction, and extensive professional development. A primary area of emphasis was the creation of student-centred mathematics and science classrooms characterised by inquiry and active student participation. The purpose of this study was to investigate differences in the learning environments of Qatari mathematics and science classrooms at two levels: in higher- and lower-performing Qatari schools implementing the recent Education for a New Era reform elements; and in classes of teachers who experienced professional development focused on student-centred teaching strategies and those who did not. Participants included teachers and students in 47 grade 3 and 4 mathematics and science classrooms. Classroom observations were conducted and student learning environment surveys were administered at the beginning and end of the semester. Results indicated low levels of student-centred instruction, despite significant improvement over time. Few differences by level of school performance or professional development participation existed. However, Personalisation emerged as a key learning environment variable related to teachers’ implementation of student-centred instruction.     

ASSESSING STUDENTS’ EXPERIMENTATION PROCESSES IN <Emphasis Type="Italic">GUIDED INQUIRY</Emphasis>

In recent science education, experimentation features ever more strongly as a method of inquiry in science classes rather than as a means to illustrate phenomena. Ideas and materials to teach inquiry abound. Yet, tools for assessing students’ achievement in their processes of experimentation are lacking. The present study assumes a basal, non-exclusive process model of inquiry in experimentation that can be considered a consensus from multiple approaches: (1) finding an idea/hypothesis, (2) planning and conducting an experiment, and (3) drawing conclusions from evidence. The study confronted 339 secondary level students with three guided inquiry experimentation tasks on 3 days. Selected working groups were videotaped while experimenting. All the students reported their processes in a structured report form simultaneous to their progress. The generated videos and reports were analysed in a two-stepped way: (1) Experimentation was coded according to the process model into process plots; on basis of these, (2) process-focused performance scores were calculated considering logical coherence and immediacy of the inquiry processes. Correlative analyses show for two of the tasks that the report format yielded comparable performance scores to those generated from video data after students have had opportunity to learn the surveying formats (r _S?>?.80). A first suggestion of a process-oriented assessment tool for inquiry in experimentation can be drawn from this study. It might be used to inform and complement secondary science instruction.     

Argumentation in the Chemistry Laboratory: Inquiry and Confirmatory Experiments

One of the goals of science education is to provide students with the ability to construct arguments—reasoning and thinking critically in a scientific context. Over the years, many studies have been conducted on constructing arguments in science teaching, but only few of them have dealt with studying argumentation in the laboratory. Our research focuses on the process in which students construct arguments in the chemistry laboratory while conducting various types of experiments. It was found that inquiry experiments have the potential to serve as an effective platform for formulating arguments, owing to the features of this learning environment. The discourse during inquiry-type experiments was found to be rich in arguments, whereas that during confirmatory-type experiments was found to be sparse in arguments. The arguments, which were developed during the discourse of an open inquiry experiment, focus on the hypothesis-building stage, analysis of the results, and drawing appropriate conclusions.     

Science Instruction for Students with Learning Disabilities: A Meta‐Analysis

Although science has received much attention as a political and educational initiative, students with learning disabilities (LD) perform significantly lower than their nondisabled peers. This meta‐analysis evaluates the effectiveness of instructional strategies in science for students with LD. Twelve studies were examined, summarized, and grouped according to the type of strategy implemented. Effect sizes (ES) were calculated for each study. Across all studies, a mean ES of .78 was obtained, indicating a moderate positive effect on students with LD science achievement. Findings also align with past reviews of inquiry‐based instruction for students with special needs, indicating that students with LD need structure within an inquiry science approach in order to be successful. Additionally, results suggest that mnemonic instruction is highly effective at increasing learning disabled students' acquisition and retention of science facts.     

Dilemmas of Teaching Inquiry in Elementary Science Methods

Because various definitions of inquiry exist in the science education literature and in classroom practice, elementary science methods students and instructors face dilemmas during the study of inquiry. Using field notes, instructor anecdotal notes, student products, and course artifacts, science methods course instructors created fictional journal entries to represent the experiences of both the instructors and students during instruction on inquiry. Identified dilemmas were varying definitions of inquiry, the struggle to provide sufficient inquiry-based science-learning experiences, perceived time constraints, determining how much course time should be slated for science instruction versus pedagogy instruction, instructors' and students' lack of inquiry-based learning experiences, grade versus trust issues, and students' science phobia. Instructors' attempts at dealing with these dilemmas included using analogies, increased field-experience time, modeling, and detailed rubrics.     

Traversing the Divide Between High School Science Students and Sophisticated Nature of Science Understandings: A Multi-pronged Approach

This study investigated the effects of a multi-pronged approach of increasing the nature of science (NOS) understandings of high school science students. The participants consist of 63 high school students: 31 in the intervention group and 32 in the control group. Explicit/reflective NOS instruction was imbedded within authentic inquiry experiences and supported by online discussions. The students in the intervention group were prompted to engage in various discussions focusing on essential tenets of NOS in an online environment that assured student confidentiality. NOS views were assessed through multiple data sources including pre- and post-intervention questionnaires as well as students’ responses to online discussion prompts. Results show that the instructional intervention used in this study which combined explicit/reflective NOS instruction with intense inquiry exposure along with ample reflective opportunities in an anonymous online discussion format led to positive learning gains in participants’ understanding the NOS aspects assessed. Implications for enhancing data collection with high school students and for promising professional development opportunities for science educators are discussed.