An Examination of Junior High School Students’ Ability to Identify and Ask Investigable Questions: A Comparison with University Students

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  • HIROSHI Naoya
    Minamiohsumi Municipal Daiichisata Junior High (Junior High School Attached to the Faculty of Education, Kagoshima University)
  • UCHINOKURA Shingo
    Faculty of Education, Kagoshima University

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Other Title
  • 中学生による科学的に探究可能な問いの判断と生成の実際
  • 中学生による科学的に探究可能な問いの判断と生成の実際 : 大学生との比較に基づいて
  • チュウガクセイ ニ ヨル カガクテキ ニ タンキュウ カノウ ナ トイ ノ ハンダン ト セイセイ ノ ジッサイ : ダイガクセイ ト ノ ヒカク ニ モトズイテ
  • ―大学生との比較に基づいて―

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Abstract

<p>This study examines junior high school students’ abilities to identify and ask investigable questions by comparing their performances to university students’ achievements on paper-and-pencil tests. The participants in this study were 122 ninth-grade students from two junior high schools and 134 students attending a university teacher education course. While the university students were able to identify with almost complete accuracy whether topics on the tests were scientifically investigable, the junior high school students were only able to correctly answer questions involving moral judgement and personal preference. Apart from these two types of questions, they were not able to judge the investigability of natural things and events. It was difficult for both university students and junior high school students to ask investigable questions, even when they found the topics suitable for inquiry. The rate of correct answers to the problem of asking investigable questions was about half of that of the problem of identifying investigable questions for the same items. Regarding types of questions, identifying and asking questions about comparison and classification as relational questions were difficult cognitive tasks for junior high school students compared to the pattern-seeking prediction as descriptive questions. They also faced difficulties in asking investigable questions: the students tended to ask closed questions with binary answers without sufficient awareness of the criteria for comparison and reference. They seldom introduced an operational definition that related measurable quantities (variables) and measuring procedures to the core concepts in explaining the natural things and events under focus. Most of the students asked questions using interrogatives such as ‘why’ that were interpreted as questions about the ontological meanings and backgrounds of natural things and events. On the other hand, few students asked investigable questions that sought descriptions of states of natural phenomena or explanations of their mechanisms. </p>

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