2020 Volume 61 Issue 2 Pages 219-228
This study aims to determine Grade 7 students’ awareness of experimental planning activities, which provides autonomy for students in designing an experiment. A ‘recipe approach’ is often used in many science lessons, and in this kind of lessons students are passive, basically just following the instructions given by a teacher although they are expected to engage in active mental work. A teaching method for students to work more actively is expected to be developed, however, it is doubted that, if the students conduct an experiment more actively, it will necessarily follow that they will learn more effectively from the activity. In our exploratory survey, students were asked to plan an experiment on a simple phenomenon, ‘Hook’s law’, and to conduct their experiments following their own plans. Students’ responses to the questionnaires after the lessons were analyzed, and the findings are below: 1. both positive awareness, for example, being satisfied with the activity, and negative awareness, for example, anxious and difficult attitude toward the activity, occurred to students at the same time, and 2. students recognized the purpose and procedure of the experiment and the importance of an experimental planning activity.
