Abstract
Scientific inquiry learning has received considerable attention in many science curriculums around the world. It is viewed as an effective instructional approach in which students actively and collaboratively learn about the nature of science and the science content by engaging in various inquiry processes. In order to benefit from the learning opportunities presented by this approach, it is considered crucial for students to engage in self and social regulation of learning processes. While recently a number of studies have been conducted to examine students’ self-regulation of learning processes, the empirical research on social aspects of regulation of learning during scientific inquiry learning is still scarce and insufficient. This qualitative study explores if and how Turkish upper primary school students (aged 12, grade 7) self and socially regulate their learning in the context of classroom-based scientific inquiry learning activities. Two groups of three students and their science teacher were studied from a private primary school in Turkey. Participants were observed and videotaped during scientific inquiry activities in a naturalistic classroom setting over a seven-week period. Their verbal and non-verbal interactions within the video data were analysed in order to identify self and social regulation of their learning processes. Moreover, this was combined with the analyses of stimulated-recall and semi-structured interviews with the student groups, and the field notes as well as relevant documents collected during classroom observations.The results of this study show that students engaged in self-, co-, and shared regulation of metacognitive, motivational and emotional processes, and these regulation processes were crucial for their successful engagement in the scientific inquiry activities. Co-regulation and shared regulation of metacognitive processes commonly emerged when the students expressed a misconception or uncertainty or a lack of understanding about a scientific idea through a variety of questions and statements, and this commonly had the function of facilitating the construction of a new scientific understanding. Further, the results of this research revealed that the student groups used increasingly more shared metacognitive regulation processes over time across the sequence of small group inquiry activities. It also emerged that the positive quality of interpersonal interactions amongst the participants was observed to create a favourable social climate, which facilitated the occurrence of co-regulation and shared regulation of metacognitive processes. Moreover, the use of co-regulation and shared regulation of motivational and emotional processes was identified as important in terms of helping the students maintain successful engagement with the task as well as creating and sustaining a positive socioemotional climate during the scientific inquiry activities. Furthermore, the results of this thesis show evidence of interplay between the different types of regulation processes. This thesis concludes with implications for practice and recommendations for future research.
| Date of Award | 2017 |
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| Original language | English |
| Awarding Institution |
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| Supervisor | Mary Webb (Supervisor) & Peter Kutnick (Supervisor) |