Science

Learning
Inquiry Project:
Asking
Each Other
Questions
Kaitlyn VanderWoude

Area of concern:
Students think only about their own ideas;
they rarely respond to others ideas

Inquiry question:
How can I help my students respond to
each other in a discussion to help them:
think more deeply about their own ideas
consider others ideas
challenge others ideas with evidence?

Background Information
Third

grade
Science is not taught often
Few discussions in science
Students tend to answer the teachers
questions, but not listen to what other
students respond
Students are enthusiastic about science
Because responding to others ideas allows students to
consider other scientific ideas, think more deeply about
their own scientific ideas, and challenge others
scientific ideas with evidence, I wanted to engage my
students in an intervention that would help them do
this.

Professional Research About

the Topic
William J. Newman Jr. (2003) suggests that
teachers often do not give students the chance to
defend their claims with evidence, even though
they usually can.
Melissa Y. Parks (2001) found that students can
affirm and reject ideas, but they do not push each
other to explain more. Parks suggests interviewing
individual students as a formative assessment to
find out what they know.
Elizabeth A. Davis (2008) explains that asking
and answering scientific questions, constructing
explanations using evidence to support claims,
and communicating and justifying findings are
necessary to scientific inquiry.

My Conclusion About the Research

Students

CAN affirm ideas, reject ideas,

and give evidence for their claims, but
they do not unless they are prompted
with individualized scientific questions.

Sothey

need to be asked
individualized scientific questions based
on their ideas.

My Strategy
The students ask
each other
questions!

Implementation
1.
2.
3.

4.

I would start off the discussion

with a question.
A student would respond.
I would ask, Who has a question
about that? and a student would
ask a question.
Repeat steps 2 and 3.

If they ran stuck

I

would give suggestions, such as:

You could ask what their evidence is.

If you did not understand, you could ask
them to explain it again.
If you want to know more, you can ask
them to explain more.
If you do not think their idea is correct,
you could give evidence, and ask them
how this evidence proves their statement
right or wrong.

Judging the Effectiveness of

My Strategy
I decided to count a students question as
effective if it:
Led to a new scientific idea/explanation
Clarified a previously stated scientific
idea/explanation
Deepened a scientific idea/explanation

Data Collection
I

used tallies
to track the
number of
questions my
students
asked and
which
questions
were effective.

Findings and Results

My students
started off
unable to think of
what to ask.
They gradually
learned how to
ask questions.
More questions
correlates with
more
ideas/explanation
s, clarified
ideas/explanation
s, and deepened
ideas/explanation
s.

Questions Asked and Effectiveness

By Day
12
10
8
Questions Asked
Number of Questions Asked,
Number of Questions That Were Effective

6
4
2
0

Discussion Day

Effective

Conclusions and Implications

Students questions are usually effective in
helping them to consider others ideas,
challenge others ideas with evidence, and
think more deeply about their own ideas as
well as others.
My students are still learning to ask each
other questions.

I would like to continue using this strategy.

Question stems
More specific data

Bibliography
Davis, E. (2008). Elementary teachers' ideas about
effective science teaching: a longitudinal study.
(Master's thesis)Retrieved from
http://www.umich.edu/~hiceweb/presentations/docu
ments/ICLS08Davis.tosend.pdf
Newman, W. J., Jr. (2003). Roles, intents, and actions:
First-year teachers' uses of discourse during
elementary science instruction (Doctoral
dissertation, Purdue University) (pp. 28-30).
ProQuest Dissertations Publishing.
Parks, M. Y. (2011). The nature of elementary
students' science discourse and conceptual learning
(Doctoral dissertation, Florida Atlantic University)
(pp. 159-184). ProQuest Dissertations Publishing.