Instructional Sequences in Science Teaching: Considering Element Interactivity When Sequencing Inquiry-Based Investigation Activities and Explicit Instruction (Poster 18)

• In Event: Saturday Poster Sessions 7:45 am
  In Poster Session: Contemporary Approaches to Science Education

Abstract

Teaching science through having students conduct investigations has been suggested by science educational documents. An issue ignored by the documents that suggest it is that investigation activities differ depending on the complexity, and the complexity varies depending on both the nature of the information and students’ expertise levels. The suggested way of integrating makes no consideration of this issue. The present study intends to narrow this gap. 85 middle-school students were randomly assigned to one of two models that differently integrated investigations and explicit instruction. The analysis examined how students’ expertise levels interacted with the two integration models. The findings provide timely information to a recent debate between Zhang et al. (2022) and De Jong et al. (2023).

Authors

• Lin Zhang, Providence College

• John Sweller, University of New South Wales