INQUIRY-RELATED ANALYSIS OF BIOLOGY LABORATORY TASKS

Abstract

Laboratory tasks in the biology textbooks were analysed to identify their constituent activities and their organization, using the checklist "LAI" developed by the research group of the University of Iowa. General findings were as follows: Students are commonly asked to make observations, manipulate apparatus, and determine the qualitative relationship. On the other hand, they are given few opportunities to formulate questions, to hypothesize and propose tests, or to design an experiment. Students still commonly work as technicians, following the explicit instructions and concentrating on the development of relatively lower level cognitive skills. It is hard to recognize that the students assigned the laboratory tasks are actually enhancing the inquiry objective.