Instructional Approaches on Science Performance, Attitude and Inquiry Ability in a Computer-supported Collaborative Learning Environment

This study examined the effects of an inquiry-based learning (IBL) approach compared to that of a problem-based learning (PBL) approach on learner performance, attitude toward science and inquiry ability. Ninety-six students from three 7th-grade classes at a public school were randomly assigned to two experimental groups and one control group. All groups received the same web-based curriculum on the scientific topic of the greenhouse effect. These IBL groups, though, were asked to actively participate in the processes of predicting, hypothesizing, and testing, while the PBL groups were instructed to follow a specific problem-solving process. The results revealed that all students performed equally in science performance despite of the treatment groups. In terms of attitude toward science, the findings indicated that students participated in IBL or PBL groups reported more positive attitudes toward learning science and resulted in higher inquiry abilities than those who were in the control group. This study concerns itself with the features of the experimental treatment that may have contributed to these results, the implications of which are also considered. INTRODUCTION Recently, the design and use of computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) has received a growing interest. Many authors have described the principles of learning and instruction that underlie the construction of such environments (Feltovich, Spiro, Coulson, & Feltovich, 1996; Hewitt, 2002). Although the terminology used to describe the principles varies among authors, a set of common ideas appears in most of their descriptions. These principles include the assignment of learning tasks that are relevant to learners, the encouragement of learners to take ownership of the learning process, the requirement of learners to work together to address the learning tasks, and the construction of learning tasks that are situated within a complex and realistic context (Koschmann, Kelson, Feltovich, & Barrows, 1996). While a number of experimental and quasi-experimental studies have compared the effects of CSCL environments with traditional lecture and discussion-type instructional approaches, results have varied greatly. In some instances, students who were taught in accordance with traditional lecture and discussion practices demonstrated learning outcomes that were equal to those demonstrated by students who were placed in computer-supported learning settings (Tutty & Klein, 2008; Yildirim, Ozden, & Aksu, 2001). In other cases, students in computer-supported environments learned more and retained longer learning effects than did students who received a lecture and discussion approach (Yu, She, & Lee, 2010). When the computer-supported approach proved to be superior, however, the researchers were unable to ascertain which features of the computer-supported learning environment were primarily responsible for the improvement in learning and attitudes. Given the mixed results and the difficulty that previous researchers have had in isolating the most important features of CSCL, we thought it would be beneficial to conduct a study that focused on how to connect the features of CSCL to maximize its instructional advantages. As noted above, one of these features involves the degree of contextualization in which a learning task is presented to learners. Contextualization, defined by Mazzeo, Rab, & Alssia (2003) as “a diverse family of instructional strategies designed to more seaminglessly link the learning of foundational skills and academic or occupational content by focusing teaching and learning squarely on concrete applications in a specific context that is of interest to the student” (pp. 3-4). Numerous terms regarding contextualization are used interchangbly with basic instruction or a specific content that is meaningful and useful to students such as contextualized instruction, situated cognition, problem-based learning, and inquiry-based instruction (Gijbels, Dochy, Van den Bossche, & Segers, 2005; Hattie, Biggs, & Purdie, 1996). Regardless of the term used, all of these applications center on the practice of systematically connecting instructional task to life goals, which places students’ interests and needs at the center of education (Dewey, 1966; Dowden, 2007). Perin (2011) reviewed sixteen studies on contextualized instruction and concluded that the outcomes of contextualized instruction were positive unless it is coupled with explicit TOJET: The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology – January 2012, volume 11 Issue 1