Background: Guidance during inquiry learning plays an important role in developing conceptual understanding and inquiry skills. This study analysed learner-tutor interactions in a simulation-assisted learning environment to investigate how tutor guidance enabled knowledge construction and fostered epistemic practice. Objectives: This research…

Background: Virtual manipulatives (VMs) are increasingly adopted in inquiry activities. However, the effects of the ratio of mobile device-based VMs to students and external scripts (a guiding structure for prompting group process) provision on group interaction has not been detailed. Objectives: This study proposed four different technology…

Background: Guidance has showed positive effects on promoting inquiry-based learning in science education. While an increasing number of studies focus on the design of guidance in simulation-based inquiry learning due to recent technology developments, how different designs of a same type of guidance affect learning remains a question. Objectives:…

This paper reports on a qualitative study of students' engagement with a Web-based inquiry environment aimed at prompting student reflection in processes of scientific inquiry. In order to demonstrate how prompts become structuring resources for students' scientific inquiry, detailed analyses of students' interaction processes are conducted. The…