Bodzin, A. M. (2005). Implementing web-based scientific inquiry in preservice science methods courses. Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education [Online serial], 5(1). Available: http://www.citejournal.org/vol5/iss1/general/article1.cfm

Implementing Web-based Scientific Inquiry in Preservice Science Methods Courses

Alec M. Bodzin
Lehigh University

According to the National Science Education Standards (National Research Council [NRC], 1996), inquiry refers to the diverse ways in which scientists study the natural world and propose explanations based on evidence derived from their work. Inquiry also refers to activities through which students develop knowledge and understanding of scientific ideas and how scientists study the natural world. Inquiry-based teaching and learning activities can vary in the amount of structure and guidance they provide a learner, or the extent to which students initiate and design an investigation (NRC, 2000). Materials-directed inquiries are often highly structured and provide step-by-step instructions that present learners with a scientifically oriented question and then ask them to manipulate materials, make observations and measurements, record results, and formulate conclusions. In contrast, learner-directed inquiries are more open-ended, providing learners with opportunities to formulate a question or hypothesis to be investigated, design experimental procedures, and work according to their own designs.

As the NRC (2000) noted, both types of experiences are appropriate for classroom learning: While materials-directed inquiry activities can be used to focus learning on the development of particular science concepts, learner-directed inquiries can provide students with opportunities for cognitive development and scientific reasoning. Variations in the openness of the inquiry are based, in part, upon the goals for learning outcomes and upon the material developers' perceptions of how students learn in the context of school environments.

Although recent documents addressing reform in science education emphasize the importance of providing classroom students with opportunities to engage in learner-directed inquiries, it is important to note that learners will likely require practice with guided experiences before being able to engage in more open-ended activities (see for example, American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1993, and NRC, 1996).

An important goal of recent science education reform is to bring scientific inquiry experiences into pK-16 classrooms. These documents argue for de-emphasizing didactic classroom instruction that focuses on memorizing science facts. Instead, they contend, teachers should emphasize engaging students in inquiry-based learning to assist in their understanding of science. Participation in inquiry can help learners acquire scientific thinking skills while developing a deeper understanding of science content and processes (Glasson, 1989; Metz, 1995; White & Frederiksen, 1998). In actual classrooms, inquiry calls for students to exercise a wide range of skills, including formulating questions, making observations, collecting and analyzing data, using logical and critical thinking to formulate conclusions, evaluating alternative explanations, and communicating their findings.

Inquiry in today’s science classrooms may take a variety of forms. For instance, a teacher might engage students with authentic questions for local and global investigations, ask them to learn through project-based science activities, or participate in role-playing debate simulations. An authentic activity is one that is coherent and meaningful, and its purpose is to help the learner acquire the culture and practices of those active in the real-world practice of the field under study (Brown, Collins, & Duguid, 1989). The key common components here are that each activity involves students with meaningful questions about everyday experiences, emphasizes using investigation to evaluate evidence critically, and engages learners in social discourse to promote knowledge construction. Thus, such inquiry-based approaches allow students to learn scientific practices through implementing and testing those practices realistically. Learners who experience inquiry-based activities and instructional methods may, therefore, have a better chance of developing a broad understanding of science, along with the critical reasoning and problem solving skills involved in scientific reasoning.

Given the emphasis on incorporating inquiry teaching and learning in science specified in current science education reform initiatives, I have developed a method to help preservice science teachers in both my elementary and secondary science methods courses gain a theoretical and practical understanding of how to take advantage of Web-enhanced instructional materials to promote inquiry learning with classroom students. The activity described in this paper illustrates how I help preservice teachers understand the variations of inquiry and how they align with the learning goals of classroom students by analyzing what the Web has to offer and determining how to use such materials in the classroom to enhance the use of classroom scientific inquiry. This entails exploring when implementing materials-directed inquiries is appropriate, when using more learner-directed approaches is better, and how best to take advantage of the Web to support inquiry learning in differing classroom contexts.

The Science Methods Courses

I teach two science methods courses in Lehigh University’s Technology-Based Teacher Education (TBTE) graduate program. One course is an elementary science methods course for students seeking teacher certification for grades K-6. The other course is a secondary science methods course for students seeking certification in general science, biology, chemistry, physics, and earth and space science. The science methods course is usually one of the first courses students take in the TBTE program, and it is often taken concurrently with a the course, Tools for K-12 Teaching and Learning. In this course students develop artifacts integrating Web design, video production, and concept mapping into K-12 instructional activities.

Inquiry-based pedagogical practices infused with a technology-integrated approach are emphasized in both science methods courses. Technologies such as Web-based resources, real-time data collection with probeware, simulations, and Geographic Information Systems are used to model the implementation of curricular activities with inquiry-based pedagogical strategies. The first five class sessions primarily focus on implementing instructional models in curricular contexts, understanding the inquiry continuum, developing lesson plans, and investigating the Lehigh River watershed (http://www.leo.lehigh.edu/envirosci/watershed/). The Lehigh River watershed is investigated using Web-based GIS, a virtual photojournal, a water quality data collection field trip to the Monocacy Creek, data analysis with a PHP server database of tributary data, real-time and archived USGS flow rates, and curricular activities designed to assist learners in understanding environmental issues in the watershed (http://www.leo.lehigh.edu/envirosci/enviroissue/).

The main objective of the sixth class session is to help students understand the instructional design of Web-based inquiry materials. The entire class session is spent analyzing and discussing Web-based inquiry (WBI) activities using the WBI Instrument and Manual (Bodzin & Cates, 2002). The WBI instrument is a tool designed to identify Web-based inquiry activities for learning science and to classify activities along a continuum from learner-directed to materials-directed for each of the five essential features of inquiry, as described in Inquiry and the National Science Education Standards (NRC, 2000).

Although individual teachers may hold different opinions about the desirability of the positions along this continuum, the instrument is neutral. That is, it classifies where the activity falls, rather than making a value judgment about the desirability of that position on the continuum (Bodzin, Cates, & Vollmer, 2001). A copy of the WBI instrument manual is available online at http://www.lehigh.edu/~amb4/wbi/wbi-v1_0.pdf.

To confirm that the instrument helped preservice teachers produce predictable and consistent analyses of scientific Web sites, we calculated internal reliability for the instrument’s use by 14 students in one of my elementary science methods courses. The instrument proved highly reliable, producing a Cronbach alpha of +.811 (p < .001) across 25 categorical assignments for the 14 student raters involved.

Many instructional materials and activities that are used in my courses are available online at http://www.lehigh.edu/~amb4. My course syllabi are available online at http://www.lehigh.edu/~amb4/courses.

Description of the WBI Instrument

A copy of the WBI instrument is provided in Appendix A. It is a matrix made up of five rows and four columns. The five rows describe the five possible essential features of inquiry. The four columns describe the degree to which the WBI is either learner directed (left two columns) or materials directed (right two columns). A column descriptor is located at the top of each of the four columns. These statements summarize the guiding philosophy for all cells in that column. Each cell in the matrix contains a sentence or two that describes what WBIs falling into that cell would exhibit as properties. To qualify as a science WBI, the activity must meet six criteria, which are listed in Table 1.

Twenty-nine classification rules (see Appendix B) are provided to guide users in making placement decisions on the instrument. The manual provides a detailed description of each rule, accompanied by examples. Users are instructed to work methodically row by row, classifying the WBI into the cell that best matches how it addresses that essential feature of inquiry. Users are to write the exact words from the Web site that most closely match the descriptive sentence or sentences for the properties of that cell. If exact words cannot be provided, then a brief written description describing a rationale for placing the WBI into a particular cell of the row should be provided.

Implementation in Preservice Methods Courses

In my science methods courses, students read the WBI manual prior to a class session. During the next class session, the WBI activity is conducted. Learners are provided with a list of Web site addresses that contain both (a) large Web sites with multiple science activities consisting of WBIs and non-WBIs and (b) Web addresses to specific WBIs. (Links to selected sites that have been used in my courses are available online at http://www.lehigh.edu/~amb4/wbi/).

Students work in pairs to complete the instrument for five WBIs using a unanimous consensus analysis, with all students agreeing on all decisions and classifications. This consensus forces them to discuss what they see, what they know, and how scientific inquiry is facilitated by the Web site. After completing an instrument for a specific WBI, students discuss each placement with me before moving on to the next WBI.

After this one-day, in-class activity, the preservice teachers develop a Web-based science activity to engage classroom learners in a science-specific curricular topic of interest, thus applying what they have learned immediately to design of their own instruction. As part of the assignment, they develop an assessment handout for the activity. The resultant Web site is tested out with a target learner, and the preservice teacher prepares a brief report on its effectiveness in bringing about science learning. This step, in turn, helps to lock in the knowledge on how WBIs promote learning with intended learners. (A description of my Web-based Science Activity assignment is available as part of my science methods courses syllabi available online at http://www.lehigh.edu/~amb4/courses/).

The WBIs created by my preservice students are of high quality and are well-designed to promote inquiry with K-12 students. Evidence of this is provided by the fact that many of my students’ exemplary WBIs (see Figure 1, for example) are indexed in the U.S. Department of Education’s Gateway to Educational Materials and are listed in Appendix C. (Editor’s note: See the Online Resources section at the end of this paper for URLs of Web sites mentioned in this paper.)

Figure 1. Screen capture from a WBI developed by preservice teacher Aran W. Glancy © 2002. (http://www.lehigh.edu/~amb4/wbi/aglancy/efield1.htm) .

I selected specific Web-based activities for WBI analysis to help preservice teachers understand the variations of inquiry and how they align with the learning goals of classroom students. Exemplary WBIs are selected, as well as others that are not as commendable to help preservice teachers see how they differ. The WBIs selected also provide students with opportunities to see how both learner-directed and materials-directed inquiries are appropriate forms of inquiry learning. Specific WBIs are select to promote understanding of the variations of each essential feature of inquiry. The selected WBIs also illustrate advantages a Web-enhanced activity may have over traditional text-based classroom instruction. In addition, I include at least a few WBIs that engage learners in authentic learning tasks that mirror the work of scientists. Examples of how some sites are used are discussed below.

WhaleNet, Athena - Earth and Space Science for K-12, and Carolina Coastal Science are examples of Web sites containing multiple activities. Large Web sites with multiple activities allow students to review many different types of science activities to see if they met the six WBI qualification criteria. Students come to realize that locating WBIs in a large Web site with multiple activities is a time-consuming process. In addition, these sites provide students with opportunities to view activities that fail to qualify as WBIs in their present form. Certain activities are examined later to identify ways to augment them and make them qualify as WBIs.

Other WBIs are selected to provide students a chance to analyze collaborative experiments. These include the WBIs on the CIESE (Center for Improved Engineering and Science Education) Online Classroom Projects and Walking with Woodlice sites. Collaborative experiments represent a subsample of WBIs that illustrate two ways to utilize evidence. First, the learner is provided with a protocol to collect certain data. These data are contributed to a collective database. Next, the WBI provides learners with cumulative data from remote geographical placements and instructs the learner in how to analyze the cumulative data. In each of these collaborative experiments, there is first a learner-directed component that is then followed by a materials-directed component. Such experiments take advantage of distributed information sources to promote inquiry. Discussion of these sites in my courses concentrates on the role of collaboration to enhance knowledge of all participants.

The selected CIESE WBIs include two collaborative projects and a real-time data project. Two WBIs—Human Genetics: A Worldwide Search for the Dominant Trait - Do You Have It? and The Stowaway Adventure—are highly structured, materials-directed WBIs that provided learners with step-by-step detailed instructions and procedures to follow. Another CIESE WBI, Sun Times: Global Sun Temperature Project, exhibits a more learner-directed philosophy, especially in the use of evidence. In each CIESE WBI, drawing conclusions and formulating explanations is little more than verification because learners' attention is directed (often through questions) to specific pieces of evidence leading them to a predetermined conclusion/explanation. Therefore, these activities merely measure the experimental and methodological proficiency of learners. In class, I contrast these activities with the Walking With Woodlice WBI, in which the conclusion/explanation cannot be predicted in advance and learners must analyze evidence to reach their own conclusions/explanations, thus helping preservice teachers understand how each approach develops different skills and processes.

The Carolina Coastal Science Web site contains a science-technology-society (STS) issues-based approach simulation, in which students are presented with a real-world controversial issue: Should a hard structure be built to stabilize a migrating inlet? Students investigate the issue from differing perspectives using online primary sources. After students complete their investigation, they participate in a public forum to debate the best course of action on the issue. This role-playing simulation provides a motivating context that engages learners in solving an authentic problem. Classroom debates on STS issues offer students a forum for communicating evidence and conclusions to an audience (NRC’s fifth essential feature of scientific inquiry). In class, we discuss how an authentic scientific problem with no known solution frames a motivating context for learners to engage in a scientifically oriented question. Once again, this is contrasted with classroom use of a verification-type activity, in which a conclusion or explanation is already well established in the scientific community.

WBIs from the WISE (Web-based Inquiry Science Environment) Web site are included in the secondary methods course. The WISE Web site contains a variety of secondary science projects that use a Scaffolded Knowledge Integration Framework design (Linn & Hsi, 2000). In this framework, students are encouraged to question, criticize, analyze, reflect upon, and interpret the explanations they encounter. Many of the activities model effective use of instructional technologies including simulations, visualizations, and Internet materials to promote inquiry learning.

Inclusion of the WISE WBIs facilitates discussion of how scaffolding affects the placement of a WBI on the continuum from learner-directed to materials-directed. WISE WBIs provide scaffolding (support to help one know how to complete an activity) in the form of learner-selectable hints. In the WBIs, an avatar (a helpful character) is used to provide hints and suggestions to reduce the complexity of a task. Often the avatar’s presence changes the activity to a more materials-directed activity. In class, I discuss how avatars may support the learning needs of students who require additional guidance and structure to complete activities. Students with learning disabilities or learners without much prior experience using inquiry methodologies are likely to require more task structuring to complete an inquiry. In addition, the use of the site’s customization features are discussed in terms of design challenges teachers face as they tailor existing curricular materials to the educational needs of their students.

To assist learners in thinking about design process of a WBI for their assignment to create a Web-based science activity, I discuss how partial WBIs may be enhanced to become full inquiries. Many partial WBIs contain only the first three essential features of inquiry. In many cases, adding a sentence to an existing WBI that states, “Can you think of other reasons that might cause this?” would prompt learners to think about alternative explanations. In addition, various forms of classroom presentations, such as poster sessions and oral presentations can be discussed as ways learners can communicate and justify their proposed conclusions and/or explanations.

I also talk about the way a teacher’s philosophical beliefs about inquiry affect how learner-centered or teacher-centered his or her class activities may be. I discuss how WBIs may be modified to be more or less learner centered. Often the wording of an activity may be modified in a few sentences to transform the activity from one design intent to another.

Finally, I discuss how sites that do not currently qualify as WBIs may be modified or utilized to become WBIs. The Web offers many good resources and activities, including authentic data sets, simulations, scientific visualizations, virtual reality, animations, and video clips that can be used to assist students in learning science. I discuss with my students how they can take advantage of these resources to create their own Web-based inquiries using the framework offered by the WBI instrument.

Summary

The critical analysis of WBIs using the instrument in my preservice science methods courses promotes student awareness of important characteristics of WBIs typifying the intent of recent science reform initiatives. My instructional methods enable preservice teachers to analyze what the Web has to offer and determine how to use such materials in the classroom to enhance classroom scientific inquiry. Analyzing WBIs provides many opportunities to discuss instructional, curricular, and technological supports that may aid students in the inquiry process.

These discussions address the nature of Web-based collaborative inquiry, the role of using scientific visualizations to promote learning, provisions in the instructional design of materials to motivate learners, the role of scaffolding in reducing the complexity of a task, and design features for promoting autonomous learning. Analyzing the instructional design of WBIs provides opportunities to discuss curricular customizations to meet the needs of diverse types of learners and provides a context for considering practical constraints of the classroom learning environment, such as time restrictions imposed by fixed schedules.

I believe my instructional methods have had an impact on my student understanding of how to use Web-based materials appropriately to promote inquiry-based learning. During intern teaching field placements, some of my preservice teachers have facilitated a Web-based inquiry process by presenting their students with a driving question to investigate a particular phenomenon. They provide their students with available Web-based data to analyze. Data sources have included elephant seal migration maps to investigate where elephant seals spend their time, drifter buoy data to investigate ocean currents, satellite images to investigate changes in land areas, and monarch butterfly migration data to investigate the monarch life cycle. In each of these cases, activity handouts were developed to assist learners in examining evidence to formulate conclusions.

Often, classroom learners were prompted by the preservice teacher to think about alternative explanations and communication has occurred in various formats including mini-poster sessions and brief classroom presentations. These examples illustrate that incorporating WBI methodologies in my science methods courses may have assisted preservice teachers with understanding a design process for using appropriate Web-based resources to promote inquiry-based learning with classroom learners.

References

American Association for the Advancement of Science. (1993). Benchmarks for scientific literacy: Project 2061. New York: Oxford University Press.

Bodzin, A. & Cates, W. (2002). Web-based inquiry for learning science (WBI) instrument manual. Version 1.0. Retrieved April 14, 2005, from http://www.lehigh.edu/~amb4/wbi/wbi-v1_0.pdf

Bodzin, A., Cates, W., & Vollmer, V. (2001, March). Codifying Web-based inquiry activities: Preliminary instrument development. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the National Association for Research in Science Teaching, St. Louis, MO.

Brown, J. S., Collins, A., & Duguid, P. (1989). Situated cognition and the culture of learning. Educational Researcher, 18, 32-42.

Glasson, G. E. (1989). The effects of hands-on and teacher demonstration laboratory methods on science achievement in relation to reasoning ability and prior knowledge. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 26(2), 121-131.

Linn, M. C., & Hsi, S. (2000). Computers. Teachers. Peers. Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Metz, K. E. (1995). Re-assessment of developmental constraints on children’s science instruction. Review of Educational Research, 65(2), 93-127.

National Research Council. (1996). National science education standards. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.

National Research Council. (2000). Inquiry and the national science education standards: A guide for teaching and learning. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.

White, B.Y., & Frederiksen, J. R. (1998). Inquiry, modeling, and metacognition: Making science accessible to all students. Cognition and Science, 16(1), 3-118.

Online Resources

Athena - Earth and Space Science for K-12 - http://vathena.arc.nasa.gov/

Carolina Coastal Science - http://www.ncsu.edu/coast/

CIESE Online Classroom Projects - http://k12science.org/currichome.html

Gateway to Educational Materials - http://www.thegateway.org

Human Genetics: A worldwide search for the dominant trait - Do you have it? - http://k12science.org/curriculum/genproj/

The Stowaway Adventure - http://k12science.org/curriculum/shipproj/

Sun Times: Global Sun Temperature Project - http://www.k12science.org/curriculum/tempproj3/en/

Walking with Woodlice - http://www.nhm.ac.uk/interactive/woodlice/

WhaleNet - http://whale.wheelock.edu

WISE - The Web-based Inquiry Science Environment - http://wise.berkeley.edu/

Author Note:

Alec M. Bodzin
Lehigh University
Email: amb4@lehigh.edu

Appendix A
WBI Instrument

Appendix B
WBI Classification Rules

Appendix C
Preservice Teachers’ WBIs Indexed in the Gateway to Educational Materials

Shark Report
http://www.lehigh.edu/~amb4/wbi/clemon/home_1.htm

The Design Challenge
http://www.lehigh.edu/~amb4/wbi/kwardlow/sciwebquest.htm

What's Wrong With Dave's Door?
http://www.lehigh.edu/~amb4/wbi/sanderson/index.html

Plant Nutrition
http://www.lehigh.edu/~amb4/wbi/bcurran/index.htm

Understanding Electric Fields and Field Lines
http://www.lehigh.edu/~amb4/wbi/aglancy/efield1.htm

Free-fall Acceleration
http://www.lehigh.edu/~amb4/wbi/jphile/index.htm

To See or Not to See....Inheritance of Color Blindness
WBIs for Elementary Learners
http://www.lehigh.edu/~amb4/wbi/mcastronova/index.htm

How Do You Design an Awesome Roller Coaster?
http://www.lehigh.edu/~amb4/wbi/aporawski/rollercoasters.html

Bald Eagle Migration
http://www.lehigh.edu/~amb4/wbi/apriester/index.htm

Nutrition and Exercise
http://www.lehigh.edu/~amb4/wbi/rrohn/index.html

How Does a Shark Survive in Its Environment?
http://www.lehigh.edu/~amb4/wbi/cmichalerya/problem.htm