Abstract
Formulating questions is an integral part of pupils’ learning process and scientific inquiry. Investigating pupil-generated questions in a collaborative science learning setting, combining self-regulation theory and phases of inquiry, can extend the previous research into pupils’ questions. This study considered questions from pupils (n = 24, aged 11–12) as types of interaction to share and reflect on both their own and others’ ideas during a collaborative open inquiry. The study was qualitative in nature. The data was collected by making video recordings of pupils’ team discussions during the study process in 12 science lessons. A content analysis demonstrates that through their questions, the pupils were actively involved in guiding their work from various points of views. These results suggest that fifth graders can successfully conduct a complex open inquiry in teams. Consequently, this study underlines that allowing pupils to work at their own pace, and to take responsibility for their learning, opportunities can arise for pupils to pose questions and regulate their learning through questions.
Highlights
IntroductionFormulating questions is an integral part of pupils’ learning process and their scientific inquiry [1,2,3]
Formulating questions is an integral part of pupils’ learning process and their scientific inquiry [1,2,3].Posing questions either to themselves or to their peers can reveal much about pupils’ interests and the issues that they find problematic [3,4,5]
Since formulating questions is essential in scientific learning, this study focuses on investigating pupil-generated questions in a collaborative open inquiry setting
Summary
Formulating questions is an integral part of pupils’ learning process and their scientific inquiry [1,2,3]. Posing questions either to themselves or to their peers can reveal much about pupils’ interests and the issues that they find problematic [3,4,5]. Since asking questions stimulates pupils to think and communicate with each other, it is important that at school, pupils have opportunities to pose questions. Even though formulating questions is crucial during inquiry, the authors acknowledge that inquiry learning is a challenging process that does not happen automatically see e.g., references [6,7,8]. Open inquiry does not have to occur without a teacher’s guidance; for example, teachers can scaffold the students’ inquiry process [11]
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