TY - JOUR
T1 - Learning benefits of secondary school students' inquiry-related curiosity
T2 - A cross-grade comparison of the relationships among learning experiences, curiosity, engagement, and inquiry abilities
AU - Wu, Pai Hsing
AU - Kuo, Che Yu
AU - Wu, Hsin Kai
AU - Jen, Tsung Hau
AU - Hsu, Ying Shao
N1 - Funding Information:
This study was based upon work supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology in Taiwan under MOST 103-2511-S-003-038-MY4 and the “Institute for Research Excellence in Learning Sciences” of National Taiwan Normal University from The Featured Areas Research Center Program within the framework of the Higher Education Sprout Project by the Ministry of Education in Taiwan. We would also like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful comments and suggestions.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
PY - 2018/9
Y1 - 2018/9
N2 - This study addresses the issue of curiosity-driven inquiry learning by examining the interplay among students’ inquiry-related curiosity, laboratory engagement, and inquiry abilities and investigates how their learning experiences would associate with such interplay. We employed structural equation modeling to analyze data collected from 920 eighth graders and 1,090 eleventh graders, including their performances on a multimedia-based assessment of scientific inquiry abilities and their responses to items in an online questionnaire. The results revealed that, for students from both grades, inquiry-related curiosity was associated with their inquiry abilities, and that the association was mediated by their inquiry-related laboratory engagement. Furthermore, the analyses showed that both formal and informal experiences were associated with the laboratory engagement of students from both grades through curiosity. Yet, the results indicated that, although the roles of the two types of experiences varied in the associations, formal science experience had stronger associations with students' inquiry abilities than informal science experience for both graders. Taken together, this study supports the importance of having curiosity-driven engagement and suggests that the science education community should collaboratively offer secondary school students such learning opportunities in formal and informal science learning settings.
AB - This study addresses the issue of curiosity-driven inquiry learning by examining the interplay among students’ inquiry-related curiosity, laboratory engagement, and inquiry abilities and investigates how their learning experiences would associate with such interplay. We employed structural equation modeling to analyze data collected from 920 eighth graders and 1,090 eleventh graders, including their performances on a multimedia-based assessment of scientific inquiry abilities and their responses to items in an online questionnaire. The results revealed that, for students from both grades, inquiry-related curiosity was associated with their inquiry abilities, and that the association was mediated by their inquiry-related laboratory engagement. Furthermore, the analyses showed that both formal and informal experiences were associated with the laboratory engagement of students from both grades through curiosity. Yet, the results indicated that, although the roles of the two types of experiences varied in the associations, formal science experience had stronger associations with students' inquiry abilities than informal science experience for both graders. Taken together, this study supports the importance of having curiosity-driven engagement and suggests that the science education community should collaboratively offer secondary school students such learning opportunities in formal and informal science learning settings.
KW - cross-grade comparison
KW - inquiry ability
KW - inquiry-related curiosity
KW - inquiry-related laboratory engagement
KW - learning experience
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U2 - 10.1002/sce.21456
DO - 10.1002/sce.21456
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85050643975
SN - 0097-0352
VL - 102
SP - 917
EP - 950
JO - General Science Quarterly
JF - General Science Quarterly
IS - 5
ER -