Engaging young students in scientific investigations: prompting for meaningful reflection

Abstract

This study examined the verbal prompts a tutor used to promote reflection and young students' responses to these prompts. Seven children (ages 8-12) participated in 260 min of one-on-one tutoring to learn scientific concepts related to gear movement; the tutor spontaneously provided these students with 763 prompts for reflection. Prompts reliably induced reflection: Students responded verbally 87% of the time. Turn-by-turn discourse analysis revealed seven distinct types of prompts and 11 distinct types of verbal responses. High-level prompts were strongly associated with high-level responses. A logmultiplicative association model with two dimensions (temporality and certainty) represented the relationships between prompt and response types; from this model, odds ratios estimated the strength of association between specific pairs of prompt and response types. Findings are discussed in terms of the effects that reflection may have on students' developing understanding of scientific concepts.

Interaction between gaming and multistage guiding strategies on students' field trip mobile learning performance and motivation

“…In previous studies, researchers have designed diverse mechanisms for providing learning guidance for different learning activities. Recent research has also demonstrated that providing proper learning guidance during the learning process has great benefits for students' learning effectiveness (Wilson, Perry, Anderson & Grosshandler, ). For example, Schworm and Gruber () employed instructional prompts to enhance students' learning outcomes and more active participation in online learning activities.…”

Trigger High-Level Responses From Students: Reflective Prompts in STEM Cooperative Learning

“…Many studies have reached the same conclusions as Wilson's (2012), although the majority has only studied the relationship between question levels and response levels. However, some studies asserted that the correspondence for all types of utterances was not good, it might be influenced by the level of awareness, the grade of the students, and the teacher's wording (Dillon,1982;Mills, Rice, Berliner & Rosseau, 1980).…”

Informed-Decision Regarding Global Warming and Climate Change Among High School Students in the United Kingdom

“…Teaching and learning should engage with the practice of constructing, testing, refining, and justifying evidence-based scientific explanations to make authentic connections between environmental issues and students' daily lives (Braaten and Windschitl, 2011). Teachers should encourage students to reflect on their own scientific problem-solving process (Wilson et al, 2012). Cognitive and motivational aspects in classrooms could impact on willingness to take action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (Sinatra et al, 2012).…”