Inquiry-Based Learning: Cognitive Measures & Systems Support (Home)
Neil Stillings
Mary Anne Rea-Ramirez
Cognitive Science
Hampshire College
Laura Wenk
Natural Science
Hampshire College
This research was supported by a grant from the Learning and Intelligent Systems program of the National Science Foundation (Grant No. REC-9720363). It was also supported by grants from the NSF's Institution-Wide Reform Program and from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Barbara Reyes served as the undergraduate research assistant for this research.
1: Hypothesis
Inquiry-oriented science instruction is differentially associated with gains in reasoning skills involved in the conduct of scientific inquiry
2: Research Design
Within-Subject Assessment
Groups
3: Assessment Method
4: Results
Mean critical-thinking raw scores (Maximum score = 30)
Group | Pre-test | Post-test |
Inquiry students | 15.53 | 17.21 |
Control students | 15.12 | 14.94 |
Trad. biol. class | 14.73 | 15.45 |
Reform biol. class | 15.61 | 14.38 |
5: Discussion
Detail 1:
Sample item: hypothesis generation
Two people are sitting in a room at equal distances from a bottle of perfume. After the bottle is opened, one person smells the perfume, and the other person does not.
A. Write a list of questions that occur to you about the statement (that is, the reasons one person smells the perfume and the other does not).
Example common answer: Does one person have difficulty smelling due to a cold?
Example from students who generate more questions: Is there a range of smell detection variability in humans that accounts for this incident?
B. Choose the question above that you think would yield the most fruitful, testable hypothesis, and write a well-formulated hypothesis that could actually be investigated.
Example answer with no hypothesis: Try it with other things that smell
Example answer that is a clear hypothesis: Person A can smell but person B cannot because of the direction of the wind in the room moving the smell away from person B. The wind is blowing in the direction of A
Detail 2:
Scoring rubric for example question