| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立屏東教育大學 === 數理教育研究所 === 98 === The present research employs meta-analysis as methodology, 109 articles / dissertations concerning science inquiry teaching（IT） at various primary schools in Taiwan. In these 109 studies, 218 comparisons have been classified into three categories for further discussion: concept of science, attitudes towards science and process skill. The effect sizes and moderators of these three categories as follow: 1. the effect size of the concept of science is 0.3974, and the moderators include subjects taught, school size and class size; 2. the effect size of the attitudes towards science and science attitude is 0.2854, and the moderators cover the level of inquiry teaching, subjects taught, students’ age, schools’ surroundings, school size and teaching hours; 3. the effect size of process skills is 0.4228, and the moderators cover the levels of inquiry teaching , subjects taught, students’ age, schools’ surroundings, teaching hours and class size.
IT does advance students’ achievements in learning science-related subjects. Science teachers at primary school should be encouraged to employ IT as methodology. Here are some of the suggestions which should be taken into consideration when they teach in class: 1. the differentiation of level; 2. the differentiation of teaching designed for different subjects; 3. the differentiation of learning between different grades; 4. the differentiation of teaching design between different class sizes; 5. the differentiation of teaching design regarding the different teaching hours.
According to the above-mentioned results, the following improvements regarding the present educational system can be made: 1. the gap between schools in an urban area and those outside; 2. improper allocation of manpower due to school size; 3. the influence of class size on inquiry teaching.
Some suggestions regarding meta-analysis are shown here: 1. in order to fit in the results of literature review, the research topic should be properly modified; 2. make good use of and double check the keyword search in order to save time for later studies; 3. the results of research should be presented in a standardized format to avoid any faults or repetitions; 4. when presenting the results of the primary studies, one should provide sufficient data for computing the effect size; 5. before any further analysis, future researchers may re-define the rules for classification of the moderators; 6. the results of meta-analysis should be presented in a great variety of ways and easily understandable.
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