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Article Excerpt
There have been increasing efforts among science educators to
move students away from learning about science towards learning to be scientists. To move in this direction, there is a need to change the epistemology of the learning of science from instructivism to one of social constructivist learning. The purpose of this research is to investigate whether the epistemology of science learning in schools can be geared towards the direction of collaborative learning through scientific inquiry. Research participants were a group of students in Singapore who used computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL). Thirteen Secondary One students from a top-band school in Singapore participated in the science research course during which Knowledge Forum was used to support online discussions for the investigative activities. The Test for Integrated Process Skills II was administered before and after the study to compare the students' scientific inquiry abilities. Other qualitative measures such as surveys and post-course activities were used to derive possible reasons that might have led to the observed outcomes.
INTRODUCTION
The traditional teaching of science often involves the development of technical skills that keep learners "on task," creating a teacher-centered classroom for the transmission of the teacher's expert knowledge to the passive-absorbing learners (Lanier & Little, 1986). The emphasis on such acquisition of scientific knowledge results in students learning facts, rules, and principles to solve simple and well-structured problems. Students taught this way might not necessarily acquire the ability to think scientifically or be able to apply scientific concepts meaningfully to solve problems in their daily lives. On the other hand, while practical work in laboratory sessions may provide them with opportunities to think, discuss, and solve science problems, the unfortunate but typical situation in many schools is that students learn science using the teacher's or guidebook's step-by-step instructions to reproduce expected results. Although this approach may not effectively foster scientific inquiry skills, it is a common practice because it is efficient in getting a large group of students to try out standard procedures in performing certain experiments. In addition, it is the way students are assessed in examinations for practical work in science.
In view of the above limitations, efforts are now being made by science educators to move students away from solving structured textbook problems. Science can be regarded as both the process of exploring, expressing, explaining, and testing the patterns and order of the phenomena in the natural world as well as the product (scientific knowledge) of this process (Carin & Bass, 1997, pp. 19-20). In order to educate students in the use of this process, there is a need to first acquaint them with scientific inquiry skills, authentic to that of science practitioners. In other words, science education should be fundamentally about interacting with or in the world in informed, reflective, critical, and agentive ways (Rodriguez, 1998) in order to construct knowledge. Such an education requires a fundamental cultural change in the epistemology of science learning in schools.
The purpose of this paper is to present and discuss a research study on changing the epistemology of science learning through fostering scientific inquiry skills among a group of students in Singapore using computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL), in this case, Knowledge Forum.
FOSTERING SCIENTIFIC INQUIRY SKILLS AMONG K-12 STUDENTS
To achieve meaningful learning, there is a need for authentic science learning to reflect the practices of the field--the inquiry process that scientists use in knowledge building--together with the disciplinary practice and communication patterns. Scientific inquiry is defined as a systematic and investigative activity that scientists employ in an attempt to provide an explanation of the natural world and to uncover and describe relationships between objects and events based on the evidence they collected (Peterson, 1978, National Research Council, 1996, Germann, Haskins, & Auls, 1996). The means used to develop these ideas are the particular ways of observing, thinking, experimenting, and validating (Rutherford & Ahlgren, 1990).
In the same vein, students build their scientific understanding and investigative skills through active inquiry, connecting previous knowledge with new information and ideas. It includes acquiring process skills in science such as formulating hypotheses, as well as operationally defining, controlling, and manipulating variables (Burns, Okey, & Wise, 1985), classifying and inferring (Trowbridge & Bybee, 1990), coordinating theories and evidence (Kuhn, Amsel, & O'Loughlin, 1988), and testing and re-evaluating hypotheses and theories (Popper, 1959). Other psychomotor skills to be acquired include using apparatus and equipment to make measurements. In essence, the teaching and learning of science should contain elements of action and change, and students should be viewed as users and producers of science (Fusco & Barton, 2001; Barab & Hay, 2001).
To change the way science is being taught in schools requires an epistemic cultural change in schools, one involving a new culture of learning where students are engaged in practices that are similar to those of scientists. This requires students asking questions, planning and conducting investigations, collecting data, analyzing data, constructing explanations with research, and communicating their findings to others. Students should experience science in a form that engages them in the active construction of ideas and explanations.
Matyas (2000) offered some suggestions for teachers who want to move towards such inquiry-based teaching in science. It includes allowing students to use existing practical laboratory lessons to generate questions for the learning of scientific methods that they could use later in the course of their own investigations. Discussions from such practical exercises allow students to generate questions and make predictions on what they expect to observe, interpret findings, and determine if more information is required to help with the interpretation of their observations. This process is known as the Learning Cycle and it has five stages, namely Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, and Evaluate. The learning cycle has helped to balance and enhance both the understanding of concepts and the development of process skills, hence giving equal emphasis to both the learning process and knowledge acquisition.
On the other hand, White...
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