Exploring teacher interventions in collaborative inquiry with a science learning environment

Abstract

As more research efforts are devoted in examining students’ achievement with the use of ICT tools, limited studies focus on the exploration of the impact of the teacher intervention in the implementation of ICT tools, in the Collaborative Science Inquiry (CSI) study. In this investigation, we conducted a trial instruction of a biology topic with the use of an inquiry-based learning environment: CSI system, which aimed to explore the outcomes of teacher interventions in students’ collaborative inquiry, and to provide implications for teachers’ instruction with ICT tools. The basic features of the CSI system, together with the main procedures of the lesson design and implementations with the system were presented. This was followed by an interpretation of the research methods of the study. Based on observing the lessons of two teachers, there were findings on the differences of the approaches of teacher intervention to the collaborative work (e.g. the aspect of the task, the frequency). The movement of the teacher around the classroom (e.g. the frequency, the purposes) and teacher-student interactions (e.g.the content and frequency of the discourses) were compared and analyzed, as well as the students’ performance on the collaborative inquiry work. The results showed that teachers’ frequent assistances of students’ collaboration promoted greater involvement and improved the quality of their collaborative activities. The increased teacher movement and active teacher-students interactions, with the aim of appropriate review and feedback, enhance students’ conceptual understanding on the topic and improve their quality of work. Implications on the teachers’ instructions with ICT tools in science were proposed in the last section of the paper.