Abstract
By focusing on the unit “function of saliva” in the second grade of a lower secondary school, this study clarified the concrete effects of hypothesis formulation, including aspects such as sharing and sophistication of the hypotheses, on data interpretation in order to obtain fundamental knowledge on the development of data interpretation skills. The following three findings were obtained:
(1) Sharing and sophistication of the hypotheses formulated by the students increased in the proportion of scientifically correct descriptions of data interpretation; for example: “Starch was broken and changed to glucose by saliva” and “Saliva reacted (mixed) with starch to form glucose.”
(2) Sharing and sophistication of the hypotheses formulated by the students increased in the proportion of students who connected the hypotheses with a scientifically correct interpretation of the data.
(3) Sharing and sophistication of the hypotheses formulated by the students increased in the proportion of students who made scientifically correct data interpretations based on evidence.
