Development of A Checklist for Helping Students' Open Scientific Inquiry Report Writing

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to develop a checklist for helping students write scientific inquiry reports after conducting open inquiry. To do this, eight scientifically gifted middle school students' worksheets for open inquiry, inquiry activities during conducting open inquiry, and final scientific inquiry reports were analyzed. Parts that were considered unsuitable in the writing inquiry reports as well as good parts were identified, and using this result, a checklist for helping students write good inquiry reports was developed. The checklist consisted of five categories and 46 items. The checklist was applied to inquiry reports written by seven other gifted students. Analyzing agreement rates of the checklists with two evaluators, high reliability could be obtained. Finally, recommendations for more effective use of the developed checklist were discussed.

Identifying and Applying Factors Considered Important in Students’ Experimental Design in Scientific Open Inquiry

“…Science educators have emphasized student-centered or open-type scientific inquiry in which students will find an inquiry problem, design experimental procedures, and draw conclusions by themselves (Kim & Park, 2015;Berg, Bergendahl, Lundberg, & Tibell, 2003;Krystyniak & Heikkinen, 2007;Zion, 2008;Zion & Mendelovici, 2013). Such open inquiry is important not only for elementary and high-school students, but also important for science teachers who guide these students (Lamanauskas & Augiene, 2016;Tatar, 2012;Windschitl, 2004).…”