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Scaffolding lower secondary students in online historical inquiry tasks
Author
Li, Dong Dong
Supervisor
Lim, Cher Ping
Abstract
The purpose of the study was to investigate the features of different scaffolds in assisting lower secondary school students, mostly aged 12 to 14, with online historical inquiry tasks. Previous studies showed that teaching and learning history using web-based inquiry method could enhance active participation and develop students thinking skills. However, sending students to the Internet to do their own inquiry does not guarantee meaningful learning. Such kind of inquiry based activity need to be scaffolded by fully prepared teachers.
Therefore, this study explored the particular dimension of scaffolding online historical inquiry based on a case study in two secondary-two history classes from a neighborhood school in Singapore. A total of 80 students were involved in the study for five months. The methodological design employed in this research was a mixed approach, integrating qualitative with quantitative methods. The data collected for this study included the screen captured video, the audio of the teacher session, the focus group interview, the digital artifacts, and the survey.
Using sample transcripts and observation extracts, the researcher discussed how the different scaffolds facilitated the students and how the students interacted with the scaffolds to achieve a better performance. The fixed scaffolds in this study included written prompts and argumentation template; while the adaptive scaffolds included questioning, modeling and peer interaction. The findings indicated that these scaffolds had benefited the students in each step of the online historical inquiry. The analysis suggested that the different scaffolds working as a system might have helped improve lower secondary students’ history skills, thinking skills and IT skills.
Therefore, this study explored the particular dimension of scaffolding online historical inquiry based on a case study in two secondary-two history classes from a neighborhood school in Singapore. A total of 80 students were involved in the study for five months. The methodological design employed in this research was a mixed approach, integrating qualitative with quantitative methods. The data collected for this study included the screen captured video, the audio of the teacher session, the focus group interview, the digital artifacts, and the survey.
Using sample transcripts and observation extracts, the researcher discussed how the different scaffolds facilitated the students and how the students interacted with the scaffolds to achieve a better performance. The fixed scaffolds in this study included written prompts and argumentation template; while the adaptive scaffolds included questioning, modeling and peer interaction. The findings indicated that these scaffolds had benefited the students in each step of the online historical inquiry. The analysis suggested that the different scaffolds working as a system might have helped improve lower secondary students’ history skills, thinking skills and IT skills.
Date Issued
2006
Call Number
D16.4.S55 Li
Date Submitted
2006