The effect of scaffolding in the form of guided inquiry questions

Woon Jee Lee, Haeyoung Kim, & Kristanti Puspitasari

Research problem Physical separation between instructors and

learners in online learning. Online learning may constrain instructor to

provide enough guidance or prompt feedback to students.

The form of instruction in online learning is to provide learning materials and to require students to complete learning tasks or activities by themselves. Complex and difficult tasks may cause cognitive

load that can hinder students’ critical thinking and decrease their learning satisfaction.

Research Purpose

The purpose of the study is to examine the effects of scaffolding in the form of guided inquiry questions on student’s critical thinking skills and students’ satisfaction in online learning.

Independent Variable IV: Scaffolding in the form of guided inquiry question

Level1: will provide guided inquiry question Level2: will not provide guided inquiry question

Definition : Scaffolding is a process in which students are given support

until they can apply new skills and strategies independently (Rosenshine & Meister, 1992).

The operational definition in this study of guided inquiry questions is a series or set of questions that force students to consider key factors or major components from given learning materials, while they are analyzing the case and making evidence-based argument.

Example of Guided Inquiry Questions How big is the target population for higher education in NED? From the target audience alone, do you think it is necessary to

develop a distance education for higher education in NED? What else do you find it important to consider in deciding

whether the country should develop a DE? Analyze each aspect, such as:

the capacity of the existing colleges outside the NED universities

the availability of technology to support a DE institution the availability of instructors the study habits of the target audience (traditional

lectures versus self-directed study) the economy of the country (notice that the government

only allocate 8% of the national budget on education)

Dependent Variable DV#1: Critical thinking skills

Critical thinking skills is about students’ ability to gather and analyze relevant information, and to come to evidence-based conclusions and solutions.

post-test: provide different case analysis and require individual analysis as essay form / will be evaluated by prepared rubric.

DV#2: Students’ satisfaction Learning satisfaction survey will contain question items about

Learner-Content Interaction and General Satisfaction among 5 categories by Strachota (2006)

Example of question items Learner-Content Interaction: The learning activities in this

course required critical thinking which facilitated my learning General Satisfaction: I am very satisfied with this online course /

I would recommend this course to others

Hypothesis Students who participate in the online discussion

with guided inquiry question will perform higher critical thinking skills than students who participate without inquiry question.

Students who participate in the online discussion with guided inquiry question will indicate higher students’ satisfaction toward learning than students who participate without inquiry question.

Rationale (theory background) Scaffolding inquiry questions present learners with

opportunities to engage in complex tasks that would be beyond their current abilities (Hmelo-Silver, et al., 2007).

With the guided inquiry questions students are expected to better able to analyze a case. The guided questions will provide students hints to solve a case by answering a set of questions that will lead them to solving the case. Students provided with scaffolding (in this case with guided inquiry questions) will tend to be more engaged in the learning tasks (Sigel & Saunders, 1977; Belland, et al., 2008; Zydney, 2008).

Method Participants: 22 Online students

(EME5457 Fall 2009 Introduction to Distance Education )

Materials: Week 7 Distance Learner & Needs http://myweb.fsu.edu/ajeong/eme5457/Fall2009/07_DistStudentNeeds.htm

Activity: Week7 Case Analysis of the Country of NED (during Oct 5~11)

Case Analysis of the Country of NEDFACTS ABOUT THE COUNTRY OF NED

 

1.  It spends 8% of its national budget on education. Universities use half of this (4%).

2.  In NED, 65% of the homes have telephones; 75% have record players; 35% have tape recorders; 80% have television sets; 95% have radios.

3.  Every NED town has a library. The small libraries can get books from larger libraries, but usually only one copy is available of academic texts.

4.  Industry has been progressively decentralized over the past 20 years, with the consequence that centers of population are fairly evenly scattered over the country, which is 1000 miles long and 250 miles wide.

5.  The NED postal service takes five days to deliver letters, and longer for parcels, but there is service to all parts of the country.

6.  Post-secondary education outside the NED universities is through regional colleges, which serve 13,500 daytime students and 21,000 evening students. 72% of these students are under 22 years of years of age.

7.  There is a strong book publishers' association in NED. It takes the view that only its members should publish books. No company has been able to join the association for the past 4 years on account of strict entry requirements. Bookshops are unwilling to sell books published by companies that are not members of the association.

8.  A public opinion poll conducted by an enterprising independent company shows that if the NEDOPEN UNIVERSITY were to be established, the highest demand would be for 1) courses in NEDESE history and culture, 2) in psychology, 3) in accounting, 4) in teacher education. Less than 5% of the adults who were questioned opted for particular subjects not on this list.

9.  The country has 10 million people, 60% over 16 years of age. Of those over 16, 40% have completed high school and 10% attended university.

10. Each year 100,000 adults and children enter NED as immigrants. They can speak NEDESE a little, but very few have had any secondary education.

11. Political power in NED rests in the hands of the OOSTS, who conquered the NORDS in 1752. OOSTS are better education and hold better jobs than NORDS. Today, 45% of the people think of themselves as NORDS, 35% as OOSTS.

12. NED has one TV channel, used for education during the day for general news and entertainment 5:30 - 11:30 PM. It is a commercial channel. Of the two radio channels, one is government-owned. Both broadcast news and entertainment 6:00 AM - 11:00 PM. Reception of TV and radio is not always good because of the mountains.

 

Procedure

Group 1

(N=11)

Group 2

(N=11)

Common Instructioncontains General Inquiry

Question

Discussion Activity with

Guided Inquiry

Question

Discussion Activity without Guided Inquiry

Question

Post-Test

analysis different

case

Week7: Oct 5-11 Week8: Oct 12-18

Study Schedule

Week 3 (9/7-13) Describe initial plan / meeting with Dr.Reiser on Fri (9/11)

Week 4 (9/14-20)Team final presentation on Mon (9/14) / Finalize plans for research studies

Week 5 (9/21-27)Analyzing week7 contents and develop inquiry question / develop quiz & survey

Week 6 (9/28-10/4)Modify materials and measurement tools / confirm with Dr.Jeong and get ready

Week 7 (10/5-11) Conduct experiment

Week 8 (10/12-18) provide quiz and survey / collect data

Week 9 (10/19-25) Data analysis / submit introduction section (10/19)

Week 12 (11/9-15) submit method section (11/9)

Week 13 (11/16-22) submit result section (11/16)

Week 14(11/23-29) submit discussion section (11/23)

Week 15 (11/30-12/6)

submit introduction section (11/30) & final version (12/7)

Team’s future goal Conduct the attempted study in EDG6363 class.

Chance to modify the research design and materials during winter.

Conduct same but sophisticated study during Spring semester with

IRB approve .

Try AECT proposal in Feb, 2010 and submit the study in Jul, 2010.

Too late !