An educational practice to support pupils’ task settings of independent research: Effects on pupils’ self-evaluation and awareness of inquiry skills

Abstract

In school education, the importance of inquiry learning, in which pupils pursue their own interests, has been emphasized. In this study, we conducted a special class mainly to support task setting for independent research during the summer vacation, which is often conducted in elementary schools in Japan. In one class of 6th graders of a public elementary school, we held a special two-hour class in which pupils expressed what they wanted to investigate as a question, and to consider a hypothesis and a method. At the end of the summer vacation, the pupils in the experimental group showed higher scores in both comprehensive and perspective-based self-evaluations than the pupils in the control group who did not receive the class. In addition, when asked about how to successfully conduct free investigation, which indicates pupils’ awareness of inquiry skills, many pupils in the experimental group mentioned what they learned in the special class. Finally, the reasons of these results and future directions are discussed.