Exploring the Possibilities of Students` Conception Construction through Inquiry Activities in Middle School Science Textbooks

The purpose of this research was to explore how scientific inquiry activities in middle-school textbooks support students construction of scientific conceptions. We analyzed what forms of reasoning students do while exploring the questions in each activity. On the basis of this analysis, we then inferred the aspects of conceptions that students can construct through each inquiry activity. Subsequently, we examined whether the inquiry activities provide sufficient support for students to understand the conception targeted in each textbook subunit that contains the inquiry activities. As indicated in the results, activities with questions that elicit different forms of reasoning supported the construction of different aspects of conceptions. Inquiries that foster phenomenon-based reasoning supported constructing structure aspect of conceptions; inquiries that prompt phenomenon or relation-based reasoning supported constructing function aspect of conceptions; and inquiries designed to foster model- based or multiple forms of reasoning supported constructing behavior or mechanism aspect of conceptions. The textbook subunits usually feature inquiry activities that support the understanding of targeted aspects of conceptions. However, when the aspects of targeted conceptions are related to mechanism, the subunits typically present inquiry activities that support the construction of behavior aspect of concepts. The findings demonstrate that additional support other than inquiry activities is needed for students to understand targeted mechanism aspect of conceptions through case analysis. Our results shed light on the support offered by inquiry activities in the construction of scientific conceptions and suggest the necessity of cognitive support in successful science learning.OAIID:RECH_ACHV_DSTSH_NO:T201716245RECH_ACHV_FG:RR00200001ADJUST_YN:EMP_ID:A074908CITE_RATE:0DEPT_NM:생물교육과EMAIL:hbkim56@snu.ac.krSCOPUS_YN:NN