Guided authentic scientific inquiry activities can give students a clear picture of the nature of science and how its fields operate in practice, but such activities are difficult to do well. Too much structure negates the benefit of open-ended activities and student-led investigation, while too little can result in frustration or unproductive…

The aim of this study was to investigate whether and how engaging with a computer-supported collaborative knowledge-building environment helps students to develop a more sophisticated approach to scientific inquiry. A total of 52 undergraduate students took a course entitled "Introduction to Natural Sciences" that was based on…

This case study explores how a science teacher adopted knowledge building and learning analytics to support a class of primary five students to collaboratively inquire and learn about electricity. Specifically, we aim to understand how the teacher implemented a lesson design guided by knowledge building principles of idea improvement and community…

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the authors' interaction-engagement approach in facilitating online courses, which focused on a guided inquiry approach to build understanding of core science concepts using hands-on experimental science investigations. The graduate-level courses were taught during 2005 through 2010, entirely online. The…

The paper traces a research process in the design and development of a science learning environment called WiMVT (web-based inquirer with modeling and visualization technology). The WiMVT system is designed to help secondary school students build a sophisticated understanding of scientific conceptions, and the science inquiry process, as well as…

Learning science requires the understanding of concepts and formal relationships, processes that--in themselves--have been proved to be difficult for students as they seem to encounter substantial problems with most of the inquiry-learning processes in which they engage. Models in inquiry-based learning have been considered as powerful…

This article reports on a study concerning secondary school students' meaning-making of socio-scientific issues in Information and Communication Technology-mediated settings. Our theoretical argument has as its point of departure the analytical distinction between "doing science" and "doing school," as two different forms of…