Background Inquiry-based instruction is a prominent teaching strategy in science education that is assumed to be an effective means to foster not only students’ understanding of science content but also their procedural and epistemic knowledge concerning inquiry processes. Empirical studies have repeatedly shown that inquiry-related activities should be combined with instruction that explicitly addresses procedural and epistemic knowledge to support students’ learning effectively.Purpose The aim of this study is to explore to what extent explicit instruction on procedural and epistemic knowledge is occurring in inquiry-based biology and chemistry lessons.Sample The sample analysed in this study consist of 16 inquiry-based biology and chemistry lessons recorded in German classrooms.Design and Methods The video recordings of the lessons were analysed in three steps. First, event-based codes were used to identify all phases of a lesson in which students were engaged in an inquiry-related activity (e.g. developing questions, planning investigations). Second, each phase was analysed with respect to features of explicit instruction (e.g. explications of inquiry strategies). Third, event-based codes were used to capture individual features of explicit instruction in a phase.Results In our sample explicit instruction on procedural knowledge occurred rarely and mostly in the form of brief sidenotes rather than as a comprehensive and deliberately planned action. Furthermore, explicit instruction on epistemic knowledge was virtually non-existent. However, we observed that many tasks and questions that are given by the teachers during their lessons have a high potential for making procedural (and epistemic) aspects explicit.Conclusion While this explorative study does not allow for causal explanations for the lack of explicit instruction, its findings provide important insights into classroom practice. Implications for teacher education and future research are discussed.

Science teachers' beliefs about teaching and learning are a vital component of teachers' professional competence and are often assumed to impact classroom practice. To date, these beliefs have been predominantly investigated regarding teaching and learning in general or for a particular science subject (e.g., physics). It remains to be determined whether these beliefs are similar across different goals within a subject. The study reported addresses this question by investigating and comparing beliefs about teaching and learning regarding two prominent main goals of science education: content goals that refer to scientific phenomena, laws, theories, and disciplinary core ideas and procedural goals that refer to scientific procedures and practices. To that end, data from 170 German teachers were collected in 2019 and 2020 with an online questionnaire. After modeling the data and assessing the quality of measurement via Rasch analysis techniques, subsequent t-tests were employed to compare beliefs. Results reveal that science teachers' beliefs vary between both main goals. For instance, teachers believe that achieving procedural goals requires primarily doing science with lesser relevance of discussing and elaborating with students explicitly the rules and strategies for engaging appropriately in scientific practices (e.g., control of variables strategy). In contrast, teachers believe that for achieving content goals, explicit instruction about corresponding conceptual knowledge is of higher relevance. Furthermore, the analysis reveals differences in teachers' beliefs about their own abilities. Teachers typically believe they are more able to teach and deal with content goals compared with procedural goals. The differences reported may help to understand research on teachers' classroom practice and can inform teacher training and professional development.

Research has demonstrated that when learning mechanics, students’ conceptions (SCs) improve gradually (1) and are often activated depending on problem features (2). The aim of this study is to combine these two research lines to investigate how different task characteristics affect the activation of SCs at different levels of sophistication. Data were collected from N = 356 students using a paper–pencil test in which conceptual and contextual task characteristics (CCTCs) are varied systematically across ordered multiple-choice items. Answer options were constructed according to the four levels of a force and motion learning progression. Results, obtained using quantitative methods (e.g., Rasch analysis and regression), demonstrate that the effects of CCTCs may differ at different levels of SCs. For the direction of problem, for example, activating the correct conception, assuming force proportional to acceleration, seems to be easier in tasks asking for the resulting motion. However, activating more appropriate conceptions regarding lower levels, e.g., assuming force proportional to velocity, compared to a rather undifferentiated understanding of force and motion, seems to be easier in tasks asking for the forces. Results of our study can be used for choosing tasks with specific CCTCs to support conceptual change along specific steps of a learning path.

Abstract. Creating lasting knowledge is an important goal of education. But how much do students retain what they have learned in school beyond the next class assignment? Is school instruction suitable for creating lasting knowledge and skills? And what can teachers do to foster the learning of lasting knowledge? We present a selective overview of research on these questions. The two theoretical strands that deal with lasting learning are meaningful learning and desirable difficulties in learning. We propose combining ideas from these two approaches to develop a comprehensive theoretical account of lasting learning and sketch questions that research should clarify to enable such a theory.

Purpose To advance the learning of professional practices in teacher education and medical education, this conceptual paper aims to introduce the idea of representational scaffolding for digital simulations in higher education. Design/methodology/approach This study outlines the ideas of core practices in two important fields of higher education, namely, teacher and medical education. To facilitate future professionals’ learning of relevant practices, using digital simulations for the approximation of practice offers multiple options for selecting and adjusting representations of practice situations. Adjusting the demands of the learning task in simulations by selecting and modifying representations of practice to match relevant learner characteristics can be characterized as representational scaffolding. Building on research on problem-solving and scientific reasoning, this article identifies leverage points for employing representational scaffolding. Findings The four suggested sets of representational scaffolds that target relevant features of practice situations in simulations are: informational complexity, typicality, required agency and situation dynamics. Representational scaffolds might be implemented in a strategy for approximating practice that involves the media design, sequencing and adaptation of representational scaffolding. Originality/value The outlined conceptualization of representational scaffolding can systematize the design and adaptation of digital simulations in higher education and might contribute to the advancement of future professionals’ learning to further engage in professional practices. This conceptual paper offers a necessary foundation and terminology for approaching related future research.

AbstractStudierende lernen nicht, wissenschaftlich zu denken, wenn sie im Laborpraktikum die Versuchsvorschrift einfach nur nacharbeiten. Besser ist es, ihnen vorab Regeln und Strategien für die Arbeitsweisen mitzuteilen, zum Beispiel mit einer digitalen Lernumgebung. Eine solche wurde an der Universität Gießen entwickelt und erprobt.

Creating lasting knowledge is an important goal of education. But how much do students retain what they have learned in school beyond the next class assignment? Is school instruction suitable for creating lasting knowledge and skills? And what can teachers do to foster the learning of lasting knowledge? We present a selective overview of research on these questions. The two theoretical strands that deal with lasting learning are meaningful learning and desirable difficulties in learning. We propose combining ideas from these two approaches to develop a comprehensive theoretical account of lasting learning and sketch questions that research should clarify to enable such a theory.

In modern science- and technology-based societies, competencies that allow citizens to reason scientifically play a key role for science- and technology-based careers as well as for democratic co-determination (e [...]

Engaging learners in practicing the retrieval of learned information fosters the consolidation of learners' mental representations and hence long-term retention. Retrieval practice research has enriched the instructional design literature by providing a wealth of evidence for these benefits of retrieval-based learning and thus emphasizing the value of means to consolidate knowledge. The present article makes the case that a fruitful next step could be to focus on the interplay between retrieval practice and generative activities. Rather than consolidating mental representations, generative activities should have as their main function the construction of coherent mental representations. Hence, from a theoretical perspective, generative activities and retrieval practice should functionally complement each other; hence, combinations of both activities might be particularly suitable to promote lasting learning. Given the challenge to beneficially combine these activities, we discuss open questions that could substantially advance both the retrieval practice and the generative learning field.

An efficient approach to fostering students’ scientific inquiry (SI) competencies (e.g., planning investigations) is to combine student engagement in inquiry activities with explicit instruction that addresses corresponding concepts (e.g., the control-of-variables strategy). Despite its effectiveness, explicit instruction on SI-related concepts seems to be rarely employed in science classrooms. As a vital component of professional competence, teachers’ beliefs are a potential cause for the rare use of explicit instruction. The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between teachers’ beliefs about the usefulness of explicit instruction as well as their own abilities and teacher performance. In a mixed method approach, the beliefs of N = 16 teachers were captured with a questionnaire, while their teaching practice was approximated through a combination of a lesson planning task and a semi-structured interview. Analyses of response patterns, a qualitative content analysis of the planned lessons, and correlation analyses were used to investigate the relationship between beliefs and performance. The findings suggest that beliefs about the usefulness of explicit instruction for fostering SI competencies may be a necessary but not a sufficient condition for its implementation. Furthermore, the results suggest the importance of assessing and investigating teachers’ beliefs on a goal-specific level.

Das Modell der Didaktischen Rekonstruktion wird seit uber 20 Jahren in der Naturwissenschaftsdidaktik und daruber hinaus als theoretischer Rahmen fur fachdidaktische Forschung und fur die Entwicklung von Lernangeboten genutzt. Im Fokus der drei mit der didaktischen Rekonstruktion verbundenen Untersuchungsaufgaben – fachliche Klarung, Erfassung der Schuler*innenper-spektive, didaktische Strukturierung – stehen dabei in der Regel fachinhaltliche Lerngegenstande (z.B. Evolution, Chaostheorie oder Klimawandel). Im Gegensatz dazu liegen bisher kaum forschungs- oder entwicklungsorientierte Arbeiten vor, in denen das Modell auf prozessbezogene Lerngegenstande (z.B. aus den Kompetenzbereichen Erkenntnisgewinnung oder Kommunikation) bezogen wird. Dem Beitrag liegt eine Interventionsstudie zugrunde, in der das Modell der didaktischen Rekonstruktion zur Entwicklung eines mehrere Schulstunden umfassenden Lernangebots genutzt wurde, welches auf den Aufbau experimenteller Denk- und Ar-beitsweisen ausgerichtet ist. Anhand des Beispiels der vorgestellten Studie wird im Beitrag zum einen dargestellt, wie die Untersuchungsaufgaben des Modells auf einen prozessbezogenen Lerngegenstand bezogen sowie welche Prinzipien fur die Entwicklung eines solchen Lernangebots aus Uberlegungen zu diesen Aufgaben abgeleitet werden konnen. Erganzend werden empirische Befunde eines Pra-Post-Vergleichs mit N = 222 Schuler*innen vorgestellt, die Evidenz fur die Wirksamkeit des entlang dieser Prinzipien angelegten Lernangebots liefern. Zum anderen wird aus methodischer Perspektive diskutiert, welche Ertrage der Einsatz des Modells der Didaktischen Rekonstruktion fur Forschungsarbeiten liefern kann, in denen die Wirkung eines Lernangebots oder eines bestimmten Instruktionsmerkmals empirisch und unter moglichst kontrollierten Bedingungen untersucht werden soll.

For promoting student learning in Newtonian mechanics, tailoring instruction to students’ conceptual needs is important. Although students’ conceptions can be inferred from research results, planning instruction is challenged by the fact that students may activate different conceptions for similar mechanics phenomena. For instance, changing the context or the wording of a task can evoke different conceptions. This article describes an approach to understanding how specific conceptual task characteristics (variations in the underlying concept or how the concept is approached) and contextual task characteristics (variations in the situation to which a concept applies) correlate with the activation of students’ conceptions in Newtonian mechanics. We employed a total of 72 single-choice tasks varying systematically conceptual and contextual task characteristics. Tasks were distributed over four test booklets and administered to a sample of undergraduates with physics as a major ( N = 85) and minor subject ( N = 114) as well as to high school students (age: ∼ 16, N = 157). Inferential statistical analysis was conducted to investigate if tasks with specific characteristics differed in their mean solution probabilities, revealing varying conceptions. Our findings suggest that even slight differences in how a task is situated (contextual characteristics), which law it addresses, and whether we ask for forces or for the state of motion (conceptual characteristics) result in significant differences regarding activated conceptions. For example, for Newton’s 1st law (with v = const. but ≠ 0) students activate more appropriate conceptions (higher solution probability) when tasks describe forces and ask for the resulting motion than vice versa. For planning instruction, it seems to be important to pay attention to the task characteristics used, to select them consciously, and to explicitly compare tasks that vary according to a particular characteristic.

Zusammenfassung In den letzten ca. 15 Jahren haben die Modellierung und die Erfassung von Kompetenz im deutschen Sprachraum eine wichtige Rolle gespielt. Es wurde eine große Vielfalt von Kompetenzmodellen entwickelt, die auch dann unterschiedliche Dimensionen und Ausprägungen beschreiben, wenn sie auf den gleichen Kompetenzbereich Bezug nehmen. Ein zentrales Anliegen des Beitrages ist es, exemplarisch an einem kleinen Ausschnitt aus dem Forschungsfeld – der Modellierung fachinhaltlicher Kompetenz von Schüler*innen in den Naturwissenschaften – vorliegende Modelle (überwiegend aus dem deutschsprachigen Raum) aufeinander zu beziehen und dabei insbesondere die Varianz in den Dimensionierungen der Modelle herauszuarbeiten. Mithilfe induktiver Kategorienbildung wurden aus der Analyse bestehender Modelle sieben verschiedene Hauptdimensionen rekonstruiert, die im Beitrag erläutert werden: (1) Inhalt, (2) Kontext, (3) Vernetzung, (4) Denkprozess, (5) Abstraktion, (6) Angemessenheit und (7) Eigenständigkeit. Es wird diskutiert, welche Erträge diese systematische Perspektive für die Einordnung von Forschungsarbeiten im Bereich der Modellierung und Messung fachinhaltlicher Kompetenz hat und welche Herausforderungen und Fragestellungen sich aus dieser Perspektive für zukünftige Forschungsarbeiten ergeben. Dabei wird u. a. in den Blick genommen, inwiefern sich sowohl das methodische Vorgehen als auch die von uns rekonstruierten Dimensionen auf andere Bereiche naturwissenschaftlicher Kompetenz (z. B. Kompetenzbereich Erkenntnisgewinnung ) und andere Zielgruppen (z. B. Studierende) übertragen lassen.

Instruktionale Kohärenz ist nicht nur für den fachinhaltlichen und fachmethodischen Kompetenzaufbau (z. B. zum experimentellen Arbeiten) zentral, sondern auch wichtig, um Mechanismen des Kompetenzaufbaus untersuchen zu können. Dem Beitrag liegt ein Projekt zugrunde, in dem theoretische Überlegungen und empirische Befunde zu fachlichen Lernprozessen als Ausgangspunkte für die Sequenzierung einer Instruktion genutzt wurden, die auf den Aufbau experimentbezogener Kompetenz (Formulieren von Fragen und Hypothesen, Planen von Untersuchungen, Auswerten und Interpretieren von Daten) abzielt. Die Instruktion hat eine Gesamtdauer von fünf Schulstunden und wurde im Physikunterricht von 12 Klassen der Einführungsphase eingesetzt. Zur Untersuchung des Kompetenzaufbaus und der Wirkung der Instruktion wurden vor und nach der Instruktion schriftliche Testinstrumente eingesetzt und Videoaufzeichnungen von Schüler*innen während des Bearbeitungsprozesses erhoben. Der Fokus des Beitrags liegt auf der Darstellung von zwei videogestützten Zugängen zur Erfassung des Kompetenzaufbaus (kategoriengestützte Erfassung von Aktivitäten, qualitativ-inhaltsanalytische Erfassung von individuellen Verständnissen). Exemplarische Analyseergebnisse werden genutzt, um insbesondere die Herausforderungen der wechselseitigen Bezugnahme zwischen diesen Zugängen und dem testbasierten Zugang zu diskutieren: Auf der Basis des Prä-Post-Vergleichs zeigt sich zwar, dass die Instruktion zur Kompetenzaufbau der Schüler*innen beiträgt, gleichzeitig zeigen sich in den videogestützten Analysen aber z. B. auch für Gruppen mit ähnlichem Kompetenzzuwachs z. T. deutliche Unterschiede in den Aktivitäten. Es lassen sich somit zwar vermittelt über die Testung Hinweise auf die Kohärenz der Instruktion identifizieren, ein systematischer Zusammenhang zwischen dem im Prä-Post-Vergleich ermittelten Kompetenzzuwachs und den kategorial erfassten Aktivitäten sowie den rekonstruierten individuellen Verständnisentwicklungen lässt sich jedoch nicht herstellen.

Inquiry-based teaching is considered as contributing to content-related, procedural, and epistemic learning goals of science education. In this study, a quasi-experimental research design was utilized to investigate to what extent embedding inquiry activities in an explicit and an implicit instructional approach fosters students' ability to engage in three practices of scientific investigation (POSI): (1) formulating questions and hypotheses, (2) planning investigations, (3) analyzing and interpreting data. Both approaches were implemented in a classroom-based intervention conducted in a German upper secondary school (N = 222). Students' procedural knowledge of the three POSI was assessed with a paper-pencil test prior and post to the intervention, their content knowledge and dispositional factors (e.g., cognitive abilities) were gathered once. Results show that not only explicit but also implicit instruction fosters students' knowledge of POSI. While overall explicit instruction was found to be more effective, the findings indicate that the effectiveness depends considerably on the practice addressed. Moreover, findings suggest that both approaches were equally beneficial for all students regardless of their prior content knowledge and their prior procedural knowledge of POSI. Potential conditions for the success of explicit and implicit approaches as well as implications for instruction on POSI in science classrooms and for future research are discussed.

Bibliographie: von Aufschnaiter, Claudia/Vorholzer, Andreas: Welche Methoden braucht die Bildungsforschung? Eine fachdidaktische Perspektive, Erziehungswissenschaft, 1-2019, S. 57-63. https://doi.org/10.3224/ezw.v30i1.07

Inquiry-based instruction is an important teaching strategy in science education that can be implemented to achieve different learning goals (e.g. the learning of science content or of inquiry skills and strategies). Inquiry-based instruction is often combined with guidance attempting to assist students to effectively engage in inquiry activities and, through this engagement, reach the intended goals. In recent research, the type and amount of guidance needed to foster student's learninghas received considerable attention. One challenge in interpreting the results of this line of research is the manifold meanings of the term 'guidance' and its implementation in inquiry-based instruction. Moreover, the effectiveness of a particular type and amount of guidance may also depend on the learning goal that is to be achieved. In this paper, we draw on existing research and theoretical considerations in attempting to disentangle three major dimensions in which the implementation of guidance may vary: (a) the degree of autonomy, (b) the degree of conceptual information, and (c) the cognitive domain of guidance. We discuss how these dimensions can be used to capture and systemise fidings of existing studies as well as to infer desiderata for further research on the role of guidance in inquiry-based instruction.

Prozessbezogene Kompetenzen, u. a. zum experimentellen Denken und Arbeiten, sind ein wesentlicher Bestandteil naturwissenschaftlicher Allgemeinbildung. Der Aufbau zugehöriger Fähigkeiten und Kenntnisse ist daher sowohl in der Mittel- als auch in der Oberstufe ein wichtiges Ziel des naturwissenschaftlichen Unterrichts. Mit der Zielsetzung des Kompetenzaufbaus sind auch Fragen der Kompetenzmessung verbunden, wenn die zu einem Zeitpunkt vorliegenden Kompetenzen erfasst, oder deren Veränderungen z. B. durch schulischen Unterricht erhoben werden sollen. Zwar finden sich im Bereich der experimentellen Denk- und Arbeitsweisen bereits Instrumente zur Kompetenzmessung, diese fokussieren jedoch häufig auf die Mittelstufe. Den vergleichsweise wenigen Instrumenten für die Oberstufe scheint es zudem nicht optimal zu gelingen, zwischen fachinhaltlichen und prozessbezogenen Kompetenzen zu differenzieren. Ausgehend von einer kritischen Analyse gängiger Modellierungen des experimentellen Denkens und Arbeitens wurde deshalb ein Testinstrument zum Einsatz mit Schülern der Oberstufe konzipiert und insbesondere dessen diskriminante Validität untersucht. Im Beitrag werden sowohl die einzelnen Entwicklungs- und Pilotierungsschritte als auch die Ergebnisse der Erprobung des Instruments mit N = 195 Schülern der Jahrgangsstufe 11 vorgestellt. Zur Auswertung der Daten wurde eine Rasch-Analyse durchgeführt. Die Ergebnisse liefern nicht nur Evidenz für die Reliabilität und Validität des Testinstruments, sondern auch Hinweise auf die Dimensionalität der zu Grunde liegenden Kompetenzstruktur.