Abstract
This study defined whether or not “The Four Question Strategy (4QS)”, a teaching method used to build up a hypothesis, is applicable to observations and experiments at elementary and lower secondary school. Simultaneously, it examined all the observations and experiments in science textbooks of elementary and lower secondary school (published by “X” Publishing Company) on the basis of the types of observations and experiments classified by Hasegawa and colleagues regarding presence or absence of causal relations to show the applicability of the 4QS.
As a consequence, when looking at the applicability of the 4QS, the types of observations and experiments classified by Hasegawa and colleagues were integrated into three categories each for elementary and lower secondary school. Furthermore, it was clarified that the applicability of 4QS was possible in experiments conducted by students in the fifth grade or higher, in which the requirements were controlled. It was also elucidated that, even in phenomena with causal relations, the applicability of the 4QS was not appropriate in experiments where the requirements were not controlled, or in observations of phenomena for which causal relations were not assumed to exist.
The knowledge obtained in this study is expected to contribute to designing science classes that nurture students’ problem-solving ability and competence in scientific inquiry.
