Working Scientifically

After reading the article by Hackling about Working Scientifically, select the best response to the question.

Question 1

Which of the following types of investigations requires the teacher to give students the most direction?

  1. verification
  2. guided inquiry
  3. open guided inquiry
  4. open inquiry
Feedback:
  1. Correct. Verification investigations involve the teacher providing the aim, equipment, procedure and often the results so students are merely verifying an idea. This is regarded as the highest level of teacher support.
  2. Incorrect. Students in a guided inquiry are given the aim, equipment, procedure and carry out the activity to determine a result. The other activity that requires more teacher support is the verification activity in which even the results are given.
  3. Incorrect. In open guided inquiries teachers provide students with the aim and sometimes the equipment list. Students need to determine their procedure and obtain their own set of results. These inquiries require very little teacher support.
  4. Incorrect. An open inquiry is directed entirely by students. Students will have developed a level of competence in which they require little teacher support.

Question 2

What is provided by the teacher in an open investigation?

  1. Aim
  2. Equipment
  3. Procedure
  4. Results
  5. None of the above
Feedback:
  1. Incorrect. The aim is provided in an open guided inquiry but an open inquiry is totally student-directed.
  2. Incorrect. An equipment list may be provided in an open guided inquiry and is always provided in a guided inquiry or verification practical but is determined by students in an open investigation.
  3. Incorrect. A procedure is provided in a guided inquiry or verification practical but not ina an open inquiry.
  4. Incorrect. Results are suggested in a verification investigation. Students follow a procedure to be able to observe the results they have been told to expect.
  5. Correct. An open investigation is totally student-directed, however it does require a lot of planning and support from the teacher.

Question 3

Advantages of giving students choice in an investigation include:

  1. motivation
  2. ownership
  3. persistence
  4. speed
Feedback:
  1. Students are more motivated if they have ownership of the problem being investigated. There are other reasons as well.
  2. Students who have selected their own problem have greater ownership in their investigation. There may be other advantages as well.
  3. Students who have selected their own problem show greater persistence when confronting difficulties in an investigation. There may be other advantages as well.
  4. Incorrect. Students need to list equipment and procedures in the early planning phases so considerably more organisation is involved in student-directed open investigations. Because the investigation is more authentic and relevant to students, their conceptual learning may be improved so the actual investigation process may be less time efficient, but the learning may be deeper and more meaningful.

Question 4

The Hackling-Fairbrother model of the scientific investigation process demonstrates:

  1. a simple linear process
  2. a flexible or cyclic process
Feedback:
  1. Incorrect. Evaluation occurs throughout the conducting and evaluating phases, so at many points the original plan may need to be re-visited.
  2. Correct. Evaluation at various points through the investigation may result in the equipment or steps of the procedure needing to be altered to achieve valid results.

Question 5

Another term for science understandings that Hackling uses is conceptual outcomes.

  1. True
  2. False
Feedback:
  1. Yes, Hackling refers to the value of investigations for improving conceptual learning because they provide the context for the investigation. The NSW syllabus calls these conceptual outcomes 'big ideas'.
  2. Incorrect. Hackling relates to the syllabus from Western Australia and uses the term conceptual outcomes. The Australian curriculum: science refers to science understandings and emphasises the need to develop knowledge in depth rather than breadth.

Question 6

The first phase of the 5E's instructional model is:

  1. engage
  2. explore
  3. explain
  4. elaborate
  5. evaluate
Feedback:
  1. Yes, students need to see the relevance in their investigations.
  2. Wrong. The exploration or open investigation only occurs after the students have been engaged in their investigation problem.
  3. No, in an open investiagtion, the students obtain their results and then they attempt to explain them.
  4. Students apply their understanding to new contexts after they have completed an explanation of the results and have added to their conceptual understanding.
  5. Students and teachers review and evaluate the inquiry process, often on an on-going basis.

Question 7

According to Hackling the 5 E's instructional model provides a perfect example of an open investigation.

  1. True
  2. False
Feedback:
  1. Incorrect. Hackling has concerns that the 'explore' phase of the 5 E's model consist only of a closed or guided investigation that ideally should be replaced or extended with an open investigation so students practise working scientifically.
  2. Hackling expresses reservations that many of the Primary Investigations that follow the 5 E's approach contain closed investigations rather than open ones.

Solution

© State of New South Wales, Department of Education and Training 2008