Examination of Secondary School Students’ Scientific Inquiry Skills Perceptions in term of Curiosity, Motivation and Attitude

From 2011, the new educational standard in Latvia in the framework of the educational reform on the centralised examination (CE) in chemistry stipulates students to demonstrate the inquiry skills they have mastered. The purpose of this study is to find out the students’ inquiry skills by analysing the CE results in chemistry. This study addresses the following research questions: (a) To what extent are the centralised examination inquiry skills measured according to the standard outcomes? (b) What information on how students have mastered the inquiry skills in chemistry is available from the CE results for the period of 2011-2015? (c) Does measuring the inquiry skills using inquiry-based laboratory work and inquiry tasks demonstrate similar achievements? The results of the study show that the CE inquiry tasks allow examining only several inquiry skills, that students have difficulties in hypothesizing and planning the procedure. The results of the examination inquiry task (the 'hidden' part) and inquiry-based laboratory work (the part prepared by the school) differ considerably. These findings show a contradiction. On the one hand, when carrying out a inquiry-based laboratory work at school students demonstrate good inquiry skills. On the other hand, they lack the skills when solving an inquiry task during the centralised examination. This proves the insufficient skills of the teachers in organising real student scientific inquiry during lessons and failure in using the inquiry-based laboratory work record as an objective measuring tool in evaluating the student inquiry skills in the examination, which is our case.

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THE EFFECTS OF CRITIQUE-DRIVEN INQUIRY INTERVENTION ON STUDENTS’ CRITICAL THINKING AND SCIENTIFIC INQUIRY COMPETENCY

Journal of Baltic Science Education ◽

10.33225/jbse/20.19.954 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 19 (6) ◽

pp. 954-971

Author(s):

Ying-Yan Lu ◽

Huann-shyang Lin ◽

Thomas J. Smith ◽

Zuway-R Hong ◽

Wen-Yi Hsu

Keyword(s):

Critical Thinking ◽

Secondary School ◽

Scientific Inquiry ◽

Secondary School Students ◽

Control Group ◽

School Students ◽

Group 2 ◽

Experimental Group ◽

Primary And Secondary School ◽

Group 1

The research aim was to examine the effects of a Critique-Driven Inquiry (CDI) intervention on primary and secondary school students’ critical thinking and scientific inquiry competency. Twenty-five 4th grade Taiwanese students from a typical primary school were selected to participate in experimental group 1 (EG1), while 28 7th grade students from a typical secondary school were randomly selected to participate in experimental group 2 (EG2). For each group, a 2-semester CDI intervention was implemented. In addition, another 28 4th graders and 30 7th graders from the same two schools were selected to participate in, respectively, control group 1 (CG1) or control group 2 (CG2). Analyses of covariance, repeated measures analysis of variance, and content theme analyses were conducted to analyze the quantitative and qualitative data. Research results indicated that EG1 and EG2 students significantly outperformed their comparison counterparts in critical thinking and scientific inquiry competency both during and following the CDI intervention. The empirical evidence provides insight into the mechanisms of promoting primary and secondary school students’ critical thinking and scientific inquiry competency. Keywords: critical thinking, critique-driven inquiry (CDI), primary and secondary school students, scientific inquiry competency, Taiwan

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Evaluation of a Summer-School Program for Highly Gifted Secondary-School Students: The German Pupils Academy

European Journal of Psychological Assessment ◽

10.1027//1015-5759.18.3.214 ◽

2002 ◽

Vol 18 (3) ◽

pp. 214-228 ◽

Cited By ~ 17

Author(s):

Heinz Neber ◽

Kurt A. Heller

Keyword(s):

Secondary School ◽

Summer School ◽

Secondary School Students ◽

Social Cognitive ◽

Gifted Students ◽

School Program ◽

School Students ◽

Positive Effects ◽

Regulatory Strategies ◽

Cognitive Framework

Summary The German Pupils Academy (Deutsche Schüler-Akademie) is a summer-school program for highly gifted secondary-school students. Three types of program evaluation were conducted. Input evaluation confirmed the participants as intellectually highly gifted students who are intrinsically motivated and interested to attend the courses offered at the summer school. Process evaluation focused on the courses attended by the participants as the most important component of the program. Accordingly, the instructional approaches meet the needs of highly gifted students for self-regulated and discovery oriented learning. The product or impact evaluation was based on a multivariate social-cognitive framework. The findings indicate that the program contributes to promoting motivational and cognitive prerequisites for transforming giftedness into excellent performances. To some extent, the positive effects on students' self-efficacy and self-regulatory strategies are due to qualities of the learning environments established by the courses.

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