8학년 학생들의 자기주도적 과학탐구 보고서에 제시된 결론의 특징

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to understand characteristics of eighth graders` conclusions presented in their self-directed scientific inquiry reports. We developed a framework, Analysis of Conclusions of Self-Directed Scientific Inquiry, to analyze students` conclusions. We then compared the conclusions with the inquiry questions students generated to find out whether the questions affected students` conclusions. In addition, we analyzed students` responses from the survey about their perceptions of drawing conclusions. According to the results, the conclusions were characterized into two categories, i.e., scientific basic assumption and scientific explanation. Almost half of the students` conclusions fall under the scientific basic assumptions. Most of the scientific explanations were deductive explanations and inductive explanations. Then, the kinds of conclusions were affected by the inquiry questions because the scientific explanations were made more than the scientific basic assumptions in answering the inquiry questions. Some students couldn`t recognize differences between conclusions and experiment results.