Model‐Based Inquiry and School Science: Creating Connections

Abstract

Much has been made in recent years of inquiry approaches to science education and the promise of such instruction to alleviate some of the ills of science education, yet in some ways this construct is still unclear to many in the field. In this paper we explore one view of inquiry in science that is based on the development, use, assessment, and revision of models and related explanations. Because modeling plays a central role in scientific inquiry it should be a prominent feature of students’ science education. We present a framework based on this view that can serve as a guide to curriculum development and instructional decision‐making with the goal of creating classroom environments that mirror important aspects of scientific practice. Specifically, the framework allows us to emphasize that scientists: engage in inquiry other than controlled experiments, use existing models in their inquiries, engage in inquiry that leads to revised models, use models to construct explanations, use models to unify their understanding, and engage in argumentation. Here, we discuss how these practices can be incorporated into science classrooms and illustrate that discussion with examples from our research classrooms.

Models as Relational Categories

“…Jonassen et al (2005) argued that while, for example, intelligent tutoring systems and microworlds allow learners to interact with them, they are used only for infer the propositions built in the systems and for confirming hypotheses. 6 In contrast, certain approaches take model construction as an explicit target for instruction (Halloun 2007;Hestenes 1992;Passmore et al 2009;Windschitl et al 2008). Often, modeling is embedded in inquiry activities, which relies on cyclical development and testing of models.…”

“…In this kind of approach, modeling can be viewed as an epistemic practice for gaining knowledge, and models as tools for knowledge construction. Hence, models are given more autonomous status both in theory formation and in inquiry in general (see, e.g., Koponen and Tala 2014;Lehrer and Schauble 2015;Passmore et al 2009). This is an interesting viewpoint as it assigns models a central role in the creative process of generating scientific knowledge (Koponen and Tala 2014).…”

“…Then a model is constructed in order to generate hypotheses and/or predictions about experiments, whose purpose is to validate or test the model (Louca and Zacharia 2012). In model-based inquiry approaches, the structure of scientific knowledge is emphasized so as to underscore the models' role as parts of larger, more comprehensive frameworks (i.e., theories) (Windschitl et al 2008; see also, Passmore et al 2009). Indeed, Windschitl et al (2008) noted that too often naive discovery is employed wherein questions are often Barbitrary^and hypotheses Bpoorly informed quesses^(p. 946).…”

Enriching Students’ Intellectual Diet through Inquiry Based Learning

“…Although each science discipline has its own specific methods, broadly speaking, when scientists are confronted with a scientific problem, question or some unexplained phenomena, they undertake a systematic process to try to solve, answer or explain what they have observed (Barrow 2006;Passmore, Stewart, and Cartier 2009). Based on their existing knowledge, scientists formulate one or more hypotheses to provide possible reasons or explanations for the phenomena.…”

Assessing Current Instructional Practices In General Biology One (Bio1010) And Arguing For A Model-Centered Curriculum

“…This is to say that "scientific 'discoveries' [happen through] a process in which scientists actively construct representations by employing problem-solving procedures" (Nersessian 1992, p. 39). This view that modeling is a cross-disciplinary practice is also reflected by both Hestenes (1992) "the great game of science is modeling the real world" (p. 732) and Passmore, Stewart, and Cartier (2009) "the development, use, assessment, and revision of models and related explanations play a central role in scientific inquiry" (p. 395). "Constructive modeling" (Nersessian 1995, p. 204), also referred to as model-based inquiry , is an authentic scientific practice that scientists have argued should be incorporated into science courses across the disciplines.…”