The effect of reflective discussions following inquiry-based laboratory activities on students' views of nature of science

النوع : Mémoire

The purpose of this research was to investigate the effect of reflective discuss ions following inquiry-based laboratory activities on students' views of four as pects of nature of science (tentative, empirical, subjective, and social). Thirt y eight students enrolled in grade six of a Lebanese school that offers an inter national program participated in the study. The study used a pretest-posttest co ntrol-group design. During each class session, students worked in groups of two for fifty minutes on the laboratory activity. Following the laboratory activity, students in the experimental group answered open-ended questions about nature o f science for twenty minutes and then engaged in a reflective discussion about n ature of science for twenty minutes. Students in the control group answered open -ended questions about the content of the laboratory for twenty minutes and then participated in a discussion of the results of the laboratory activities for tw enty minutes. Data sources for the study included an open-ended questionnaire en titled "Perspectives on Scientific Epistemology Questionnaire (POSE)" (Abd-El-Kh alick, 2002) which was used as a pre- and post-test to gauge changes in students ' views of nature of science. Another data source was the answers to the open-en ded questions that students of the experimental group answered individually afte r engaging in inquiry-based laboratory activities. Additionally all class sessio ns in the experimental and control groups were videotaped and the reflective dis cussions of the experimental group were transcribed. Finally, semi-structured in terviews were conducted with a selected number of students from the experimental group and transcribed to triangulate the findings from other data sources. The results indicated that explicit and reflective discussions following inquiry-bas ed laboratory activities enhanced students' views of (a) tentative nature of sci ence, (b) empirical nature of science, (c) subjective nature of science, and (d) social nature of science more than implicit inquiry-based instruction. Moreover , implicit inquiry-based instruction did not substantially enhance the students' target nature of science views. This study also presented five major challenges that students faced in their attempts to change their nature of science views.