Providing guidance in computer-supported inquiry environments: a research perspective
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Providing guidance in computer‑supported inquiry environments: a research perspective Daniel L. Hoffman1 Accepted: 14 November 2020 © Association for Educational Communications and Technology 2020
Abstract This paper is in response to the article entitled, “Identifying Potential Types of Guidance for Supporting Student Inquiry When Using Virtual and Remote Labs in Science: A Literature Review” (Zacharia et al. in Educ Technol Res Dev 63(2):257–302, 2015). After a brief recap of the original study, this paper examines the impact of Zacharia et al.’s (2015) two-dimensional system for categorizing guidance tools in inquiry learning contexts. It suggests a number of ways researchers can apply the existing categorization system to advance the field’s understanding of how to support student inquiry within digital environments. The paper addresses some limitations of the original study—such as the need to include learner perspectives when evaluating guidance tools—and ends with suggestions for future research on when and how to study guidance mechanisms in computer-supported environments. Keywords Guidance · Computer supported learning · Inquiry · Scaffolds · Science Zacharia et al. (2015) present findings from a literature review analyzing the ways in which researchers provide guidance to students working in computer-supported inquiry environments. Their article focused on different types of guidance or “personalized support” (Zacharia et al. 2015, p. 259) designed to assist students pursuing inquiry-based science. In this context, guidance is “any form of assistance offered before and/or during the inquiry learning process that aims to simplify, provide an overview on, elicit, supplant, or prescribe the scientific reasoning skills involved” (Lazonder and Harmsen 2016, p. 687). When properly implemented, guidance helps students “reflect on their ideas, use evidence to distinguish among their ideas, and build connections among ideas” (Gerard et al. 2016, p. 61). Given the documented challenges and demands of inquiry-based learning (see Land 2000; Barron and Darling-Hammond 2010), an overview of guidance mechanisms is a welcome contribution to the field. To this end, the authors developed a two-dimensional system for categorizing guidance tools. The first dimension was based on a framework for inquiry (de Jong et al. 2014) and included five phases: orientation, conceptualization, investigation, * Daniel L. Hoffman [email protected] 1
University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, 1776 University Avenue, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA
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conclusion, and discussion. The second dimension was based on a taxonomy of guidance (de Jong and Lazonder 2014) and included six types of guidance: process constraints, performance dashboards, prompts, heuristics, scaffolds, and direct presentations of information. After establishing this categorization system, the researchers reviewed 31 studies involving 89 guidance examples. They subsequently categorized the examples and examined their underlying research for
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