Inquiry-based learning allows students to learn about scientific phenomena in an exploratory way. Inquiry-based learning can take place in online environments in which students read informational texts and experiment in virtual labs. We conducted two studies using eye-tracking to examine the integration of these two sources of information for students from vocational education (78 and 71 participants, respectively, mean age of 13 years and 7 months). In Study 1, we examined whether the amount of time spent on reading text and on integrating the text content with information from a virtual lab (as measured via gaze switches between the text and the lab) affected the quality of the inquiry-based learning process in the lab (i.e., correctly designed experiments and testable hypotheses created) and the learning gain (increase in domain knowledge from pretest to posttest). Results showed, on average, a gain in domain knowledge. Pretest scores were related to posttest scores, and this relation was mediated by the score for correctly designed experiments in the lab. There was no relation between informational text reading time and inquiry process quality or learning gain, but more frequent integration was associated with a higher score for experimentation in the virtual lab, and more frequent integration attenuated the relation between pretest score and designing correct experiments. Integration could thus compensate for the negative effects of lower prior knowledge. In Study 2, we examined whether integration was stimulated by highlighting correspondences between the informational text and the virtual lab (i.e., signaling). Integration was higher than in Study 1, but this did not further improve the quality of the inquiry process or the learning gain. A general conclusion is that integration fosters inquiry-based learning, but that stimulating additional integration may not result in further improvement.

基于探究的学习使学生能够探索性地学习科学现象。基于查询的学习可以在在线环境中进行，在该环境中，学生可以阅读信息性文本并在虚拟实验室中进行实验。我们进行了两项使用眼动追踪的研究，以研究职业教育学生的这两种信息来源的整合（分别为78名和71名参与者，平均年龄为13岁和7个月）。在研究1中，我们检查了阅读文本以及将文本内容与虚拟实验室的信息集成所花费的时间（通过文本和实验室之间的注视开关测量）是否影响了基于查询的学习过程的质量在实验室中（即，正确设计的实验和可验证的假设被创建）和学习收益（从测试前到测试后领域知识的增加）。结果显示，平均而言，领域知识有所增加。测试前的分数与测试后的分数相关，这种关系由实验室中正确设计的实验的分数所介导。信息性文字阅读时间与查询过程质量或学习增益之间没有关系，但更频繁的整合与虚拟实验室中更高的实验得分相关，而更频繁的整合削弱了预测分数与设计正确实验之间的关系。因此，整合可以弥补较低先验知识的负面影响。在研究2中，我们研究了通过突出显示信息文本和虚拟实验室之间的对应关系（即信令）是否刺激了整合。整合程度高于研究1，但这并不能进一步提高查询过程的质量或学习成果。一个普遍的结论是，整合促进了基于查询的学习，但是刺激额外的整合可能不会带来进一步的改善。