Gender Differences in Experiences of 6th-Grade Students Inquiry Activities in the Republic of Korea

Abstract

Each student's individual experience in learning is very important. Lower secondary school students are engaged in activities that focus on inquiry rather than the acquisition of scientific knowledge in science classrooms. Therefore, the experiences and thoughts of lower secondary school students in the stage of scientific inquiry need to be analyzed. To this end, the internal and external experiences of students in the stages of observation, variable control, and conclusion drawing were analyzed through candle-burning experiments. Seventy-seven 6th-grade students were used as participants. The main activities; main actions; main thoughts; and contribution of actions, consciousness, and emotions were analyzed. No differences were observed in the external and internal experiences of male and female students in each stage of the inquiry activities. There were many cases in which other activities related to the inquiry were carried out in addition to the activities that were mainly performed at the corresponding stage. About 1/4 of the participants had internal experiences unrelated to inquiry. The results showed that interaction needs to be increased by including the variable control stage in the inquiry activities. Given that there were no differences in the external and internal experiences of male and female students, equal inquiry activities without gender discrimination can be achieved. Keywords: internal experience, external experience, inquiry stage, gender difference.