Supporting Student Choice and Collaborative Decision-Making During Science Inquiry Investigations

This study investigates the impact of providing students with opportunities for collaborative choice-making during inquiry learning with Investigating Seasons, an online curriculum module. Two versions of Seasons (no-choice and choice) was implemented with ten classes of high school students (N = 207). Study findings indicate that students in the choice condition demonstrated greater gains in their conceptual understanding of seasons as well as a higher increase in normative written explanations compared to the no-choice students. Introduction and Rationale Despite research documenting the tremendous benefits of introducing more authentic forms of inquiry into the classroom (e.g., White & Frederiksen, 1998), most science teachers do not have the adequate classroom time or resources to involve their students in independent inquiry investigations and are forced to turn instead to the use of linear step-by-step “cookbook labs” that bear little resemblance to authentic inquiry practices. The Seasons unit aims to strike a balance between rigorously structured “cookbook” inquiry (lacking in rich learning outcomes but easier to implement) and inquiry that is more authentic and open-ended (highly challenging to implement but with potentially more powerful learning outcomes) by incorporating student choice. Allowing students to choose and decide upon their own inquiry paths “accommodates and values the diversity” of learners; “by allowing for multiple entry points and multiple paths, all students ultimately come into proximity to core learning goals, with richer and deeper learning experiences” (Murata, 2012, p. 20). In addition, in making their choices, student pairs are given the opportunity to collaboratively discuss and compare their developing ideas together. This study explores the effect of providing choice during inquiry and considers research questions such as: How does providing students with the option to choose their own path of inquiry investigations affect their learning and conceptual understanding of seasons? Does instruction that scaffolds students’ choice-making result in improved learning outcomes for students? If so, why is providing choice effective for learning? Theoretical Framework This research work adopts a constructivist perspective towards learning, in which the pre‐existing ideas that learners have are viewed as productive starting points for instruction to leverage towards more scientifically valid and integrated understandings of challenging science ideas and concepts (Smith, diSessa, & Roschelle, 1993). For example, while changing distance between the Earth and the Sun is the primary misconception about seasons cited in the research literature, it is not the only strongly held misconception. A survey that this author administered to 9th grade earth science students (N = 102) revealed that nearly just as many students cite Earth’s orientation towards or away from the Sun as the primary cause of seasons (N = 30; 29%) as those who mention the changing Sun-Earth distance (N = 32; 31%), suggesting that inquiry instruction on the seasons should be flexible and adaptable enough to acknowledge and address the variety of starting prior ideas across all students.