A Study of Scientific Inquiry Activities in Smart Classrooms of a Primary School
As inquiry is not only an approach, but also the goal of scientific learning, cultivating students’ ability of inquiry in learning science subjects becomes a key element of the new curriculum reform. Smart classrooms, which may facilitate learning activit
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South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China {627540195,183233559}@qq.com 2 City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR, China [email protected] The Shiken Primary School, Nanhai District, Foshan, Guangdong, China [email protected]
Abstract. As inquiry is not only an approach, but also the goal of scientific learning, cultivating students’ ability of inquiry in learning science subjects becomes a key element of the new curriculum reform. Smart classrooms, which may facilitate learning activities to enhance students’ ability of independent learning, inquiry and creativity, offer a new direction in designing scientific inquiry activities. Based on the theory in activity and constructivism, this study analyzes the key elements of scientific inquiry activities in smart classrooms of a primary school and defines a mechanism for the six types of scientific inquiry activities identified. Investigation is one of the six types of scientific inquiry activities. This study analyzes how activities of investigation work and be supported in a smart learning environment. Experimental results indicate that investigative inquiry activities in a smart classroom can raise learning achievements, develop the ability of inquiry, and improve the investigative ability, scientific attitude and emotion. Keywords: Scientific inquiry activities Investigation inquiry activity Smart classrooms E-schoolbag
1 Introduction ‘‘Science learning should be focused on inquiry’’, as stated in the Science Curriculum Standard [1] and thus scientific inquiry becomes one of the important elements in the current educational reform of primary science curriculum. How to develop science inquiry instruction effectively has become a hotspot of science education research. However, the value of inquiry instruction has not been reflected in primary science classes yet. Most inquiry activities merely scratch the surface of inquiry [2] due to limiting inquiry resources and environment. Some teachers do not plan for inquiry teaching until they have finished traditional knowledge teaching [3], who do not have a clear understanding of the relationship between the inquiry process and content [4]. Smart classrooms are a kind of smart learning environment which aims to cultivating students’ intellectual ability by means of functional supports of information technology associated with reforming the teaching and learning process [5]. Smart © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016 S.K.S. Cheung et al. (Eds.): ICBL 2016, LNCS 9757, pp. 24–36, 2016. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-41165-1_3
A Study of Scientific Inquiry Activities in Smart Classrooms
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classrooms may support ubiquitous learning and big-data-based multi-dimensional teaching evaluation, develop wisdom in teaching and learning [6] and improve students’ abilities and awareness in self-learning, inquiry, questioning and summary [7]. Thus smart classrooms may provide a new way for the effective implementation of scientific inquiry.
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Review of Scientific Inquiry in Primary Schools
Research on sci
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