Action ResearchIn this project, teachers questioned theories, practices and models that can be used in the classroom to enhance student questioning. Students in grade one and two were encouraged to formulate/initiate questions to investigate science concepts. Through inquiry, students were made aware of their level of questioning and encouraged to use these questions in their daily activities. This curiosity was prompted through children's literature, themes and cross-curricular concepts.
Release Time: Each teacher was provided with 6 release days to collaboratively research and plan their project. Some of this time was used to plan activities and new teaching methods that match our provincial outcomes. We also considered our method of data collection in a primary science class. |
Data Collection
Pretest
To collect data we provided an activity where students were presented with a science card from the authorized Science curriculum. Note: The questions on the cards were covered. Students were given opportunity for discussion to ensure key words and concepts were highlighted.
Example: Grade One- words related to objects and materials; Grade Two- words related to position and motion. |
Following the discussion students were given question cards to use as a prompt to write their own questions about the science card.
These question cards were created based on the Q-Matrix in the Grade One Language Arts Curriculum Guide Page 122. Observations, photos, work samples and teacher's daily plans were also used for data.
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ImplementationEach day we prepared an integrated science lesson with a whole group discussion which included a children's book and/or science card. After some discussion students wrote questions that arose from the discussion. At that time, students were provided with the same question cards that were used in the pre-test. These question cards were color coded according to the Q-Matrix chart in the curriculum guide. According to Bloom, the yellow cards were lower level questions which required facts/knowledge. The level two questions were red cards that were analytical. The level three questions were green cards that asked predictive questions while the blue question cards were higher level application/synthesis questions. These questions were used to guide our follow-up activities. Other integrated activities were carried through at that time. (See littlescientistslittleengineers.weebly.com) After some time to prepare to answer their inquiry questions students engaged in hands-on science activities for further exploration. This was the lesson plan design throughout the unit.
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Post-Test
Following the same format as the pre-test, students continued to use the question cards and wrote their questions after a story or discussion.
Data Analysis
After students completed written questions teachers took a tally on the Q-Matrix chart of the types of questions their students were formulating in each activity. This was an indicator of the level of questions grade one and two students were using. Also, the content of the questions had to be taken into consideration. For example, the question may have started with higher level question words but then it was off topic.
Results
Over the course of project, teachers tallied student's written question according to the Q Matrix and the following results were found:
Yellow-Factual (Level 1)
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Green-Predictive (Level 3)
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Red-Analytical (Level 2)
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Blue-Application/Synethesis
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Results Continued
- Overall students are asking mainly analytical questions (red) which are higher level questions that lead to inquiry but not at the highest level (blue)
- Authorized science curriculum is a good resource for prompting student questions including science cards and children's literature.
- Some suggestions and resources need to be modified since the question is usually given or suggested that the teacher ask the question. When the questions are hidden, students are more likely to "pose questions that lead to exploration and investigation (p. 85 Science 2 Curriculum Guide, 2016)
- Some resources and prompts lead to better inquiry than others. For example, in Rosie's Walk by Pat Hutchins, students questioned how the tricks such as the pulley worked, leading to an activity about pulleys. In the story Muncha! Muncha! Muncha! by Candace Flemming, student questions led to investigation of materials. Some other stories did not lead to any investigation.
"Students have varying levels of experiences with inquiry activities and benefit from collaborating with peers to discuss their thinking and personal interests to form an inquiry question. The activation of prior knowledge or schema, specific to a topic encourages students to think and ask questions... In grade one, students are encouraged to use their prior knowledge and experiences to form open-ended questions that are meaningful to them and include more than one right answer. Students are most interested in talking about questions that really matter to them" (p. 78, English Language Arts 1 Curriculum Guide, 2017)
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