Develop Inquiry Skills Research Articles

Investigating the Use of Inquiry & Web-Based Activities with Inclusive Biology Learners

Recent data from the National Center for Education Statistics (2002) noted that students with disabilities make up 13.2% of the student population in public schools. Due to recent federal government legislation that includes the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (1997) and No Child Left Behind Act (2001), more school districts are moving students out of self-contained classrooms (a classroom containing only students with disabilities where they often receive little or no science instruction) and into inclusive science classroom settings (a classroom setting where all students regardless of the type of disability are educated with their same-age peers). This represents a 30% increase in the last decade. This steady increase of inclusion may be beneficial to students, but it creates special challenges for teachers of biology, many of whom were not trained in special education. In inclusive biology classrooms, all students are expected to meet standards for biology education. These standards include developing understanding of science content knowledge and scientific thinking skills (National Research Council, 1996). A variety of instructional strategies used to promote science learning for students with learning disabilities has been described in the literature. These include: providing learning tasks that engage students in actively doing science (Champagne, Newell & Goodnough, 1996; Mastropieri & Scruggs, 1992), adapting available science activities to address the needs of diverse learners (Finson, Ormsbee, Jensen & Powers, 1997), using alternate assessments (Finson & Ormsbee, 1998), delivering instruction through integrated themes (Champagne et al., 1996), and implementing appropriately-developed computer applications to promote science learning (Mastropieri & Scruggs, 1996). Science education professionals generally agree that a hands-on, inquiry-based approach to learning science potentially benefits all students. In addition, advocates of science reform initiatives suggest that reformed-based classrooms will produce learning environments that are supportive of all students (Anderson & Fetters, 1996). However, there is a concern that students with disabilities will be unable to develop inquiry skills since accommodating these learners is likely to prove complicated and time consuming for many mainstream classroom teachers (Scruggs & Mastropieri, 1992). In this article, we describe how to best assist inclusive high school students in learning biology with inquiry-based activities using a Web-integrated biology program. An aim of this study was to determine optimal ways of implementing materials with inclusive learners. We describe experiences trying to support the development of students' science skills during an investigative laboratory. We also discuss classroom adaptations and instructional strategies teachers may use to assist in promoting biology learning with inclusive learners. Context This design-based study was conducted in collaboration with two university faculty members (a science educator/ researcher and a special education educator/researcher) partnered with a classroom biology teacher, and a special education teacher who co-instructed in an inclusive ninth grade biology classroom. Design-based studies combine inductive qualitative approaches with quantitative and quasi-experimental approaches, varying the method to suit investigative questions that present themselves over the life of the collaboration (Cobb, Confrey, diSessa, Lehrer & Schauble, 2003). In these investigations, researchers establish a regular presence in the classroom to support the use of an innovation and work as essential partners to promote effective learning strategies. In part, this serves to temporarily establish conditions that are favorable to the innovation's success. Without these conditions, it would not be possible to study the phenomena or ideas of interest. …

Developing Sixth Graders’ Inquiry Skills to Construct Explanations in Inquiry‐based Learning Environments

The purpose of this study is to investigate how sixth graders develop inquiry skills to construct explanations in an inquiry‐based learning environment. We designed a series of inquiry‐based learning activities and identified four inquiry skills that are relevant to students’ construction of explanation. These skills include skills to identify causal relationships, to describe the reasoning process, to use data as evidence, and to evaluate explanations. Multiple sources of data (e.g., video recordings of learning activities, interviews, students’ artifacts, and pre/post tests) were collected from two science classes with 58 sixth graders. The statistical results show that overall the students’ inquiry skills were significantly improved after they participated in the series of the learning activities. Yet the level of competency in these skills varied. While students made significant progress in identifying causal relationships, describing the reasoning process, and using data as evidence, they showed slight improvement in evaluating explanations. Additionally, the analyses suggest that phases of inquiry provide different kinds of learning opportunities and interact with students’ development of inquiry skills.

The “MATE” model: a strategic knowledge management technique on the chessboard of public‐sector modernization

During the past two decades a variety of reforms and projects under the mantle of public‐sector modernization were developed in order to achieve efficiency, effectiveness, economy and quality in service delivery. Despite the overwhelming consensus that public organizations must transform there is little evidence on how to pursue modernization successfully. This paper argues that modernization is tantamount to creating a “learning public administration”. Managing the transformation process rests on the organization's capability to continuously enhance, the collective capacity to reflect, to learn how to learn, to unlearn old ways of doing things and abandon old habits. How to best navigate the transition from a rigid and conventional mode of thinking towards a creative and strategic one remains the challenge in the current knowledge‐based economy. As a response to this challenge the present paper presents the management, training and evaluation (MATE) model – a knowledge management strategic technique – that can be utilized for modernizing government organizations. Based on the results of a pilot case study undertaken within the context of Greek public sector we argue that modernization's success depends on how knowledgable an organization is in the strategic running of three core systems: the management (MA) system, the training (T) system and the evaluation (E) system. More specifically, the case study has shown that the exercise of the range of activities included in the three MATE systems may serve as the practical field, as the ideal setting for developing inquiry skills, “double‐loop” learning capabilities at individual and organizational level.

Teaching the History of Science to Students with Learning Disabilities

The purpose of this article is to present a lesson template designed to engage students in a specific science event from the past in a manner that relates to the students' lives and experiences. Making activities relevant to students aids in retention of science knowledge and helps promote active participation in the activity. This student-focused approach is characterized by fast-paced, student-centered, highly motivating activities that promote cognitive and affective growth. It demonstrates that instruction anchored in real-life situations promotes higher-level thinking and the development of reasoning skills (Meese, 2001). Such activities empower students with learning disabilities to achieve at a high level in science and other content area courses (Phillips, Fuchs, Fuchs, & Hamlet, 1996). Similar activities have been found to increase comprehension among students with mild cognitive and intellectual disabilities (Mastropieri & Scruggs, 2000). In addition, the guided questioning format assists them in developing inquiry skills that lay the foundation for future inquiry and can be applied throughout the curriculum. In addition to students with learning disabilities, this activity is also appropriate for students with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), allowing them to focus on class work while actively moving about the classroom engaged in the role-play (Williams & Hounshell, 1998).

Student goal orientation in learning inquiry skills with modifiable software advisors

AbstractA computer support environment (SCI‐WISE) for learning and doing science inquiry projects was designed. SCI‐WISE incorporates software advisors that give general advice about a skill such as hypothesizing. By giving general advice (rather than step‐by‐step procedures), the system is intended to help students conduct experiments that are more epistemologically authentic. Also, students using SCI‐WISE can select the type of advice the advisors give and when they give advice, as well as modify the advisors' knowledge bases. The system is based partly on a theoretical framework of levels of agency and goal orientation. This framework assumes that giving students higher levels of agency facilitates higher‐level goal orientations (such as mastery or knowledge building as opposed to task completion) that in turn produce higher levels of competence. A study of sixth grade science students was conducted. Students took a pretest questionnaire that measured their goal orientations for science projects and their inquiry skills. The students worked in pairs on an open‐ended inquiry project that requires complex reasoning about human memory. The students used one of two versions of SCI‐WISE—one that was modifiable and one that was not. After finishing the project, the students took a posttest questionnaire similar to the pretest, and evaluated the version of the system they used. The main results showed that (a) there was no correlation of goal orientation with grade point average, (b) knowledge‐oriented students using the modifiable version tended to rate SCI‐WISE more helpful than task‐oriented students, and (c) knowledge‐oriented pairs using the nonmodifiable version tended to have higher posttest inquiry skills scores than other pair types. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Sci Ed 86:244–263, 2002; DOI 10.1002/sce.10003

Participatory Simulations: Building Collaborative Understanding Through Immersive Dynamic Modeling

This article explores a new way to help people understand complex, dynamic systems. Participatory simulations plunge learners into life-sized, computer-supported simulations, creating new paths to scientific understanding. By wearing small, communicating computers called Thinking Tags, students are transformed into players in a large-scale microworld. Like classic microworlds, participatory simulations create a scenario, mediated by a set of underlying rules, that enables inquiry and experimentation. In addition, these new activities allow students to "dive into" a learning environment and directly engage with the complex system at hand. This article describes and analyzes a set of participatory simulations that were conducted with a group of high school biology students. The students' experiences are tracked from their initial encounter with an immersive simulation through their exploration of the system and final description of its underlying rules. The article explores the educational potential of participatory simulations. The results of this pilot study suggest an opportunity to further investigate the role that personal experience can play in developing inquiry skills and scientific understanding.

Do secondary school laboratory texts reflect the goals of the "new" science curricula?

Do secondary school laboratory texts reflect goals such as raising problems, developing inquiry skills, and providing opportunities for discovery?; a summary of the results of laboratory task ana...

Developing Inquiry Skills with an Experimental Social Studies Curriculum

An experimental social science curriculum with the express intent of developing inquiry skills was tested in a controlled experiment against an established conventional curriculum. The new curriculum involved inquiry skill objectives as well as knowledge objectives for each unit; readings stressed source material. Post-experiment testing showed that students who followed the experimental program developed inquiry skills to a significantly greater degree than students in the control group.