This study investigated the effects of scientific inquiry experiments emphasizing social interaction on the academic achievement, the ability for science inquiry and the learning motivation of the students. To examine the differences among the classes...
This study investigated the effects of scientific inquiry experiments emphasizing social interaction on the academic achievement, the ability for science inquiry and the learning motivation of the students. To examine the differences among the classes of scientific inquiry experiments according to the way of organizing small groups, the effects of the group in homogeneous cognitive level and the group in heterogeneous cognitive level were compared. 255 7th-graders were grouped into the treatment group and the control group. After the treatment group received the scientific inquiry experimental lessons emphasizing social interaction and the control group received traditional lessons for one year, academic achievement, ability for scientific inquiry, and learning motivation were examined. These inquiry experiments were composed of four steps which are eliciting, familiarizing, constructing and bridging. And students can interact with peers and teachers through the process of relating observed phenomena to concept, constructing experiment procedure, and eliciting results. The ANCOVA results revealed that there were significant effects of science inquiry experiments emphasizing social interaction on the academic achievement, the ability for scientific inquiry and the learning motivation of the students. The significant academic achievement of the students in most of the cognitive levels, if not all, was found and degree of improvement in the ability for scientific inquiry was lower than that in the academic achieve3ment. Concerning the effects according to the way of organizing small groups, there were significant improvement in academic achievement and learning motivation of the group in homogeneous cognitive level compared to the group in heterogeneous cognitive level. These results indicate that social interaction in learning is important and it has positive influences on the improvement in academic achievement and ability for scientific inquiry of students.