An Educational Practice to Support Pupils’ Task Settings of Independent Research: Effects on Pupils’ Self-Evaluation and Awareness of Inquiry Skills

Abstract

In education, the importance of inquiry learning, in which students pursue their own interests, is emphasized. In this study, a special two-hour class supported sixth-grade students in a public elementary school in determining the topic of an independent research project for their summer vacation. Students were asked to establish a question about the theme they wanted to research, develop a hypothesis about the question, and choose a method to verify it. After the summer vacation, students conducted self-evaluation using Likert-scale items. The intervention group had higher scores on both the comprehensive and perspective-based self-evaluations than students who did not take the class (the control group). Additionally, in free writing many students in the intervention group mentioned the main learning points in class when asked for tips to conduct independent research effectively, which reflected their consciousness of their own inquiry skills.