A study of the effect of inquiry experiment activities on experimental abilities and science attitudes among the sixth graders

• Main Authors: Huang Yen Lun, 黃彥綸
• Other Authors: 王美芬
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2007
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/60679977342226733904

碩士 === 臺北市立教育大學 === 自然科學系碩士班 === 96 === The purpose of this study was to explore how inquiry experiments’ instructions influence 6th graders’ experimental abilities and their attitudes toward science. The aims of this research were to investigate the impact of inquiry experiments’ instructions on 6th graders’ experimental abilities, their attitudes toward science and their feeling about inquiry experiments’ instructions. The research adopted both qualitative and quantitative methods to analyze whether the experimental abilities of the sixth graders were upgraded and the process of their improvement. Quantitative data were used to analyze how the students’ attitudes toward science were affected before and after class. The participants were sixth graders (two classes) sampling from elementary schools in Taipei. A questionnaire was constructed and sent to these students before and after the class to collect empirical data concerning the influence of the lecture on these students. Besides, during the course, the researcher also continue to collect and analyze the classroom observation, tapes, the results of the interviews, the reflection of teaching, working sheets, and the survey of students’ learning attitude to understand the changes of students’ experimental abilities. The results of this research were as follows: 1. Inquiry experiments’ instructions upgrade students’ experimental abilities significantly. We can find the improvement of students’ experimental abilities from the following five points: (1)Students can bring up much more key point problems correctly that need to be solved. (2)The team can deduce a proper hypothesis based on the problem. (3)Students can make use of the variables correctly and apply them to the design of the experiment. (4)The team can execute the steps of the experiment much more precisely and try to solve the problems. (5)The team can explain the relationship between a variable and another and examine whether the hypothesis can be verified. 2. There were not so significant differences in promoting students’ attitude toward science throughout inquiry experiments’ instructions, but inquiry experiments’ instructions still can maintain students’ attitude toward science in a positive way. 3. Students have great response toward inquiry experiments’ instructions.