ABSTRACT

Although extensive research has shown the important educational value of technology-enhanced online units on students’ science learning, few studies have looked at upper elementary students' knowledge integration in a web-based inquiry science environment (WISE). This case study investigates how upper-elementary students responded to an online prompt, in an embedded assessment tool, to construct a scientific explanation around the variation of traits in their class and how a teacher provided feedback to encourage student discourse. Our findings show that students were able to identify which traits were more common in their class; however, they struggled with making a connection between variation of traits and inheritance of traits when analyzing data from their pie chart. Additionally, we show that an upper-elementary teacher used an embedded assessment tool to scaffold the iterative process of learning and feedback that occurs in an online platform that leverages learning technologies by engaging in high-level discourse moves. We suggest that teachers’ use of embedded assessments in a technology-enhanced environment can encourage student self-reflection and support teachers in making evidence-based instructional decisions as well as provide immediate feedback along the way, which is a key support when students are not participating in traditional face-to-face classroom environments.

摘要

尽管广泛的研究表明技术增强的在线单元对学生科学学习的重要教育价值，但很少有研究关注高年级小学生在基于网络的探究科学环境 (WISE) 中的知识整合。本案例研究调查了高年级学生如何在嵌入式评估工具中对在线提示做出反应，以围绕班级特征的变化构建科学解释，以及教师如何提供反馈以鼓励学生讨论。我们的研究结果表明，学生能够确定他们班级中哪些特征更常见；然而，在分析饼图中的数据时，他们努力在性状变异和性状遗传之间建立联系。此外，我们展示了一名高年级教师使用嵌入式评估工具来构建在线平台中发生的学习和反馈的迭代过程，该平台通过参与高级话语动作来利用学习技术。我们建议教师在技术增强的环境中使用嵌入式评估可以鼓励学生进行自我反思并支持教师做出基于证据的教学决策并在此过程中提供即时反馈，这是当学生没有参与传统的面对面课堂环境。