Transforming Students' Inquiry Skills with Computer-Based Simulations
Abstract
The application of web-based learning environment “Young Scientist” (http://bio.edu.ee/noor) in developing the 6th grade students’ inquiry skills (aged 10-12) was studied. The main objectives have been to evaluate the development of students’ inquiry skills and how the development of these skills depends on their pre-skills. 302 students all over Estonia solved three problems in the following topics: “The Production of Plants”, “The Fertilization of Plants”, and “The Biological Control of Plant-hazardous Insects”. According to the results of the pre- and post-test their skills of formulating problems, research questions, and hypotheses, planning and conducting investigations, analyzing data, and skills of making inferences developed statistically significantly. Spearman correlation demonstrated that the highest development occurred among the students with initial low level of inquiry skills. The only exception was found in the case of formulating research questions since more advanced pre-skills led to higher development.
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Both research questions and hypotheses are based on theoretical justification and contain independent and dependent variables, but the hypothesized direction of the relation between variables given in the hypothesis is not present in the case of a research question.
“Both of these are based on theoretical justification and contain independent and dependent variables, but have one key difference -the hypothesized direction of the relation between variables given in the hypothesis is not present in the case of a research question (Mäeots et al., 2008).”
From Phases of inquiry-based learning: Definitions and the inquiry cycle (2015) · cites this paper as Mäeots et al., 2008
Cites
Scientific discovery learning with computer simulations of conceptual domains
De Jong, T., & Van Joolingen, W. R. (1998) · Review of Educational Research · doi:10.3102/00346543068002179 · Cited by 1,593 · see citing works
Inquiry, modeling, and metacognition: making science accessible to all students
White, B. Y., & Frederiksen, J. R. (1998) · Cognition and Instruction · doi:10.1207/s1532690xci1601_2 · Cited by 1,394 · cited 1× · see citing works
“Resulting from this, inquiry learning consists of processes that comprise formulating hypothesis, gathering data and interpreting it, and making conclusions [4, 5, 6 ].”
MethodLearning and Instruction with Computer Simulations: Learning Processes Involved
de Jong, T., & Njoo, M. (1992) · Computer-Based Learning Environments and Problem Solving · doi:10.1007/978-3-642-77228-3_19 · Cited by 125 · see citing works
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Phases of inquiry-based learning: Definitions and the inquiry cycle
Pedaste, M., Mäeots, M., Siiman, L. A., de Jong, T., van Riesen, S. A. N., Kamp, E. T., Manoli, C. C., Zacharia, Z. C., & Tsourlidaki, E. (2015) · Educational Research Review · doi:10.1016/j.edurev.2015.02.003 · Cited by 2,119 · see citing works
“Both of these are based on theoretical justification and contain independent and dependent variables, but have one key difference – the hypothesized direction of the relation between variables given in the hypothesis is not present in the case of a research question (Mäeots et al., 2008).”
BackgroundSelf-citation
- Authors
- Mäeots, M., Pedaste, M., & Sarapuu, T.
- Affiliations
- University of Tartu (EE)
- Venue
- 2008 Eighth IEEE International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies
- Publisher
- IEEE
- Published
- 2008
- Pages
- 938-942
- OpenAlex
- W2126762278
- Cited by
- 36
- References
- 3
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 1 · 2018: 2 · 2017: 1 · 2016: 1 · 2015: 2 · 2014: 2 · 2013: 4 · 2012: 1
- FWCI
- 0.00
- Type
- conference paper
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- IEEE International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies (ICALT) (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- European Social Fund
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Education › Science Education and Pedagogy
- Social Sciences › Education › Educational Methods and Outcomes
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Media Technology › Experimental Learning in Engineering
- Keywords
- inquiry skills, computer simulation, web-based learning environment, sixth grade students, problem formulation, hypothesis generation, data analysis, botany education, biological control of insect pests
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