2024 Volume 64 Issue 3 Pages 329-339
The purpose of this study was to develop an instructional method to foster students’ ability to find variables in question-setting situations. We designed an instructional method that focuses on comparing multiple phenomena and organizing causal relationships among variables. We examined the effectiveness of the instructional method using a two-group pre- and posttest design. The results of a six-month trial with 74 children in the third grade of elementary school showed that the experimental group significantly improved their scores in finding variables, positively indicating the effectiveness of the intervention. The results of the qualitative analysis suggest that the success was attributable to the teacher providing the children with explicit procedures for finding the variables, and having them represent the variables in a way that separated cause and effect, which contributed to the relatively enhanced ability among the students in the experimental group.
