Title
How Students Investigate: Understanding Students’ Use of Scientific Schemas in Open-Ended Labs
Campus Location
Abilene Campus
Date of Award
Spring 5-12-2023
Document Type
Manuscript
Department
Teacher Education
Degree Name
Master of Education in Teaching and Learning
First Advisor
Andrew Huddleston
Abstract
Schema provides a theoretical framework for understanding the nature of science, inquiry, and open-ended labs. These topics have been emphasized in the state standards, especially in high school sciences. In this study the researcher took field notes, collected lab write ups, and conducted focus group interviews to understand students’ use of schema related to open-ended labs. These data were analyzed with the constant comparative method to generate themes. The author describes the major findings with parallel narratives, one focused on a student’s confusion and the other focused on a student’s understanding. The author concludes by advocating for science teachers to provide open-ended labs with scaffolding for high school students by including sentence starters and reteaching the scientific process throughout the year.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Wall, J. Alexander, "How Students Investigate: Understanding Students’ Use of Scientific Schemas in Open-Ended Labs" (2023). Masters of Education in Teaching and Learning. 69.
https://digitalcommons.acu.edu/metl/69
Included in
Engineering Education Commons, Science and Mathematics Education Commons, Secondary Education Commons, Secondary Education and Teaching Commons