The Effects of Prior-knowledge and Online Learning Approaches on Students’ Inquiry and Argumentation Abilities

Abstract

This study investigated the effects of students' prior science knowledge and online learning approaches (social and individual) on their learning with regard to three topics: science concepts, inquiry, and argumentation. Two science teachers and 118 students from 4 eighthgrade science classes were invited to participate in this research. Students in each class were divided into three groups according to their level of prior science knowledge; they then took either our social-or individual-based online science learning program. The results show that students in the social online argumentation group performed better in argumentation and online argumentation learning. Qualitative analysis indicated that the students' social interactions benefited the co-construction of sound arguments and the accurate understanding of science concepts. In constructing arguments, students in the individual online argumentation group were limited to knowledge recall and self-reflection. High priorknowledge students significantly outperformed low prior-knowledge students in all three aspects of science learning. However, the difference in inquiry and argumentation performance between low and high prior-knowledge students decreased with the progression of online learning topics.

The Use of Cronbach’s Alpha When Developing and Reporting Research Instruments in Science Education

“…Yang, Lin, She and Huang (2015, pp. 1572-1573 report using "a two-tier multiple-choice diagnostic instrument developed to measure the degree of students' conceptual understanding in science (Cronbach's α = 0.81…)" as a measure of prior knowledge across six diverse topics: "(1) the classification of substances, (2) fire prevention, (3) thermal convection, (4) chemical reaction rates, (5) sound waves and (6) mass conservation" (p.1571).…”

Reflections on and implications of the Programme for International Student Assessment 2015 (PISA 2015) performance of students in Taiwan: The role of epistemic beliefs about science in scientific literacy

“…Finally, many studies have demonstrated that inquiry-based instruction can improve students' learning and their attitudes toward science (Chen & She, 2015;Furtak et al, 2012;Rönnebeck et al, 2016), and other studies have further suggested that inquiry-based science teaching benefits overachievers (Kuo et al, 2012;Raes et al, 2014;Yang et al, 2015). In addition, some studies have reported that students' epistemic beliefs influence their cognitive processes of thinking, reasoning, or knowledge acquisition, and predict their achievement in science (Hofer, 2001;Mason et al, 2013).…”

The influences of contextualized media on students' science attitudes, knowledge, and argumentation learning through online game‐based activities

“…A number of online learning programs were developed to support students' use of scientific languages in argumentation (Yang et al, ; Golanics & Nussbaum, ; Hasancebi & Gunel, ). The programs situate learners in collaborative, virtual, and explorative environment, enable them to explore relevant information from multiple resource and support them to make statements and reflections based on multiple views (Meluso et al, ).…”

“…The integration of multimedia and games into the design of online learning would make the learning more effective and educationally entertaining (Alessi & Trollip, ). It has been reported that well‐designed online science learning environments support the development of students' science‐related abilities, including science attitudes (Barab & Dede, ; Maxmen, ; Papastergiou, ), understanding of scientific knowledge (Meluso, Zheng, Spires, & Lester, ), and scientific argumentation (Yang, Lin, She, & Huang, ; Golanics & Nussbaum, ), allowing these abilities to be developed more effectively. The existing research regarding text reading comprehension indicates that individuals rely on contextualization cues to obtain meanings (Gumperz, ).…”