Research Projects

Previous studies have found that inquiry labs improved chemistry students’ abilities to ask high level questions (Hofstein, Shore, & Kipnis, 2004; Hofstein et al., 2005). However, both studies used traditional approaches as the control and neither described the actual level of inquiry applied. This study sought to investigate the influence of the level of inquiry on student engagement, measured by the quantity and quality of student questions and LIKERT survey responses regarding attitudes towards chemistry and the classroom experience.

Previous studies investigating student-generated questions in a laboratory class compared inquiry to a traditional approach without characterizing the inquiry level. This study investigated the influence of inquiry level on the quantity and quality of student-generated questions over one semester in a General Chemistry course with 356 participants. The researchers studied two types of inquiry in labs: structured inquiry and open inquiry. Quantity and quality of student-generated questions were analyzed and student attitudes were measured using a LIKERT survey while content knowledge was assessed via post-test. A close relationship was not found between the level of inquiry and the quantity or quality of student-generated questions, student attitudes or content knowledge. However, the data highlighted the importance of the teacher in the quantity and quality of student questions.