Issues in computer supported inquiry learning in science

摘要

Current views on science learning state that this should not involve learning just about the established results of science, including well-established theories such as Newtonian mechanics or the evolution of species as well as important empirical discoveries such as Young's double slit experiment or the structure of DNA. Instead science learning should also focus on the processes and methods used by scientists to achieve such results. One obvious way to bring students into contact with the scientific way of working is to have them engage in the processes of scientific inquiry themselves, by offering them environments and tasks that allow them to carry out the processes of science: orientation, stating hypotheses, experimentation, creating models and theories, and evaluation (de Jong 2006a). Involving students in the processes of science brings them into the closest possible contact with the nature of scientific understanding, including its strengths, problems and limitations (Dunbar 1999). This is the main claim of inquiry learning: engaging learners in scientific processes helps them build a personal knowledge base that is scientific, in the sense that they can use this knowledge to predict and explain what they observe in the natural world.