S IPSE 1100997 Chapter1
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. Background
Questioning ability is an integral part of meaningful learning and
scientific inquiry. The formulation of a good question is a creative act and at
the heart of what doing science is all about (Chin & Osborne, 2010). Hofstein
et al. (2005) believe that the development of students’ ability to ask questions
should be seen as an important component of scientific literacy and should not
be overlooked. When students become a citizen, they will often find
themselves in situations in which they will need to ask critical questions and
seek answers so that they will need to make a valid decision. Apparently, this is
the era where everyone can easily have access to tons of information from tons
of both trustable and non trustable sources with just a click of a mouse.
Therefore, knowing what is right matters as much as knowing what is wrong,
and the only that we can do to know the value of right or wrong is through
questioning.
Question is a problem to be solved, a solution demand. Students learn
something when there is a problem they discovered or given. Science is not
only about the solution, but it is also about how to find the solution itself.
Learning how to solve the problem matters as much as finding the solution.
The essence of learning science is the ability to apply scientific knowledge in
students’ daily life. Discovering possibilities in life through questions is also a
part of applying scientific knowledge. One of the concerns of nowadays
education system is the scientific literacy of the students. Students are
considered to have a scientific literacy when they are able to apply their
scientific knowledge in making decision and facing problems. A very common
activity which can teach students how to find the solution is a laboratory
activity.
There are lots of classification of questions that can be used in analyzing
questions generated by both teacher and students. The questions can be
classified based on their productivity (Jelly, 1985), types of question during a
discourse (Chin & Osborne, 2010), and many other classification. Question is a
Anggita novianti, 2015
STUDENTS’ QUESTIONSON INQUIRY-TYPE LABORATORY IN LEARNING HEAT TRANSFER
CONCEPT Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu | perpustakaan.upi.edu
2
form of students’ expression, when students are raising question, it means they
are exposing what is in their mind during the time of learning (Marbach-Ad &
Sokolove, 2000). Therefore, students’ question can also be a diagnostic tool for
the teacher to discover students’ understanding.
Students do not only raise question simply because they do not know,
question also acts as something else apart from showing students’ puzzlement.
Students’ question plays many other important roles during a teaching-learning
process. According to Chin & Osborne (2010) in the process of argumentation,
questions generated by the students play important roles in the argumentative
process. Inparticular, the questions:
1. Foreground any incomprehension or points of disagreement students had;
and pushed them to articulate these either covertly to themselves or overtly
to their peers.
2. Prompted students to make explicit their beliefs and claims, thus displaying
their (mis)conceptions for peers to examine.
3. Spurred students to identify the key concepts relevant to the scientific
phenomenon at hand.
4. Impelled students to make connections between their various ideas, and
elicited self- or peer-explanations of the scientific phenomenon.
5. Challenged opposing view points, stimulating peers to critically evaluate
their initial ideas and to consider alternative propositions.
A recent research by Chin & Osborne (2010) showed that there is a
positive correlation between the numbers of questions students ask with the
generated argument they result in. It clearly indicates that students’ question
has a pivotal role in helping students construct their knowledge, which in turns
helps them to learn. Questions act as a scaffolding stairs for students, it helps
students to understand a certain knowledge step by step. It also helps as a
reminder for the students of what they understand and what they did not
understand on a discussion. When students raise questions, they are expressing
their curiosity toward something. A curious student is a student who wants to
learn more. Helping students learn from their own question could help
increasing their motivation towards learning.
Anggita novianti, 2015
STUDENTS’ QUESTIONSON INQUIRY-TYPE LABORATORY IN LEARNING HEAT TRANSFER
CONCEPT Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu | perpustakaan.upi.edu
3
Learning is not only about answering. Education is expected to help
students critically analyze the conditions around them. Researcher analyzes
answer, but answer does not come alone before a question was raised.
Recently, schools are educating students on how to answer compared to nurture
students on the culture of asking (Hofstein, Naaman, & Iyad 2010). Students
will later on be the master of answering but still a novice at questioning.
Questions are designed to probe, to find something that is not already
there, to discover relationships and possibilities that are not given (Bowker,
2010). Therefore investigative questions which trigger the students to discover
more and more likely to be answered by further investigations are considered
as higher-order level of question according to Hofstein, et al (2005). However a
research by Allmond & Makar (2010) reveals that writing investigative
questions emerged as challenging for the students. Students learn from the
depth of a question. The deeper the question is, the more knowledge students
will be able to learn. Students should not only nurture the habit of asking
question, but they also should be able to raise investigative question. For when
students are given a state of condition, they can find the possibilities that are
not given in the state. It would open their mind to solve their problem in many
alternatives of solutions.
Laboratory activities have long had a distinctive and central role in the
science curriculum, and science educators have suggested that many benefits
accrue from engaging students in science laboratory activities (Hofstein &
Lunetta, 2003). They also suggest that through a proper developed inquiry
laboratory the potential to enhance students’ meaningful learning, conceptual
understanding, and their understanding of the nature of science is more likely
to happen. Hands-on learning activities alone is believed to be not sufficient for
conceptual change and therefore students also needed an opportunity to process
for meaning through class discussion of the reasons behind what they observed
in their independent design activities according to Dalton et al. (1997).
For well over a century, laboratory experiences have been purported to
promote key science education goals including the enhancement of students’
understanding of scientific concepts, interest and motivation, scientific
Anggita novianti, 2015
STUDENTS’ QUESTIONSON INQUIRY-TYPE LABORATORY IN LEARNING HEAT TRANSFER
CONCEPT Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu | perpustakaan.upi.edu
4
practical skills and problem solving abilities, scientific habits of mind,
understanding of the nature of science (Hofstein & Lunetta, 2003). Simple
inquiry tasks popularly known as “cookbook” may not only fail to help
students learn to reason scientifically; they may also foster a nonscientific
epistemology in which scientific reasoning is viewed as simple, certain,
algorithmic, and focused at a surface level of observation (Chinn & Malhotra,
2002). It would also be a form of creative act to let students solve their
problem with their own way, as an application of what they have learned
during their life time.
A large number of learning outcomes, particularly inquiry abilities, are
best learned through investigations, and those motivated by students' own
questions can be invaluable learning opportunities. Students also learn the
characteristics of questions that can be properly investigated if they have
opportunities to pose and investigate questions (National Research Council,
2000).
It is important to know the quality and types of questions arisen by
students. For it is one of the indicators whether the students are able to apply
their scientific knowledge or not while working on a group with their peers.
Through this research, the flow of information among students inside their
discussion can also be seen. Whether all students equally contributed inside the
discussion or only dominant persons with high self-esteem and knowledge are
the ones in charge of the discussion and activity.
The chosen topic for this research was not randomly picked by the
researcher. Heat transfer is one of the topics which have the closest relation
with students’ daily life. Students are familiar with heat, when they feel
familiar with a certain topic it is expected that they raise more question in the
activity.
Inquiry-based learning has always been a major answer in the demand of
a new reformation in science teaching. Researches had proven that inquiry may
lead to a better understanding, better achievement, and a more probable
meaningful learning. Yet little research had been sufficient to describe how it
can affect the questions arisen from the students. Therefore the main focus of
Anggita novianti, 2015
STUDENTS’ QUESTIONSON INQUIRY-TYPE LABORATORY IN LEARNING HEAT TRANSFER
CONCEPT Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu | perpustakaan.upi.edu
5
this research is to investigate students’ questions on inquiry-type laboratory in
learning heat transfer.
B. Research Problem
Based upon the research background described previously, the research
problem of this study is “How is students’ question on inquiry-type
laboratory in learning heat transfer?”
C. Research Question
Based on the previously stated research problem, this research attempts to
explore the following questions:
1. How is students’ question during the planning stage of inquiry-type
laboratory?
2. How is students’ question during the experiment stage of inquiry-type
laboratory?
3. How is students’ question during the discussion stage of inquiry-type
laboratory?
D. Limitation of Problem
In order to avoid a widening problem in this research, then the research
will be limited to as follow:
1. Students’ questions in this research is the relevant questions posed by the
students which will be classified by its’ productivity (Jelly, 1985).
2. Inquiry-type laboratory features in this research is adapted from National
Research Council (2000)
3. The topic developed in this research is limited to heat transfer such as;
conduction, convection and radiation.
Anggita novianti, 2015
STUDENTS’ QUESTIONSON INQUIRY-TYPE LABORATORY IN LEARNING HEAT TRANSFER
CONCEPT Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu | perpustakaan.upi.edu
6
E. Research Objective
The research objective is specified to as follow:
1. To identify students’ question during the planning stage of inquiry-type
laboratory
2. To identify students’ question during the experiment stage of inquiry-type
laboratory
3. To identify students’ question during the discussion stage of inquiry-type
laboratory
F. Significance of Research
The result of this research is expected to give a good input to as follow:
1. For Teachers
This research is expected to become a reference in designing an inquiry-type
laboratory in order to develop students’ questions-asking ability.
2. For Students
Through inquiry-type laboratory, it is expected that the student develop
more and better questions in order to understand science not only as a
product, but also to understand science as a process
3. For Other Researchers
As input and introductory study to comprehend the effect of inquiry-type
laboratory towards students’ question-asking ability in an instruction with
different variable and more problems
Anggita novianti, 2015
STUDENTS’ QUESTIONSON INQUIRY-TYPE LABORATORY IN LEARNING HEAT TRANSFER
CONCEPT Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu | perpustakaan.upi.edu
INTRODUCTION
A. Background
Questioning ability is an integral part of meaningful learning and
scientific inquiry. The formulation of a good question is a creative act and at
the heart of what doing science is all about (Chin & Osborne, 2010). Hofstein
et al. (2005) believe that the development of students’ ability to ask questions
should be seen as an important component of scientific literacy and should not
be overlooked. When students become a citizen, they will often find
themselves in situations in which they will need to ask critical questions and
seek answers so that they will need to make a valid decision. Apparently, this is
the era where everyone can easily have access to tons of information from tons
of both trustable and non trustable sources with just a click of a mouse.
Therefore, knowing what is right matters as much as knowing what is wrong,
and the only that we can do to know the value of right or wrong is through
questioning.
Question is a problem to be solved, a solution demand. Students learn
something when there is a problem they discovered or given. Science is not
only about the solution, but it is also about how to find the solution itself.
Learning how to solve the problem matters as much as finding the solution.
The essence of learning science is the ability to apply scientific knowledge in
students’ daily life. Discovering possibilities in life through questions is also a
part of applying scientific knowledge. One of the concerns of nowadays
education system is the scientific literacy of the students. Students are
considered to have a scientific literacy when they are able to apply their
scientific knowledge in making decision and facing problems. A very common
activity which can teach students how to find the solution is a laboratory
activity.
There are lots of classification of questions that can be used in analyzing
questions generated by both teacher and students. The questions can be
classified based on their productivity (Jelly, 1985), types of question during a
discourse (Chin & Osborne, 2010), and many other classification. Question is a
Anggita novianti, 2015
STUDENTS’ QUESTIONSON INQUIRY-TYPE LABORATORY IN LEARNING HEAT TRANSFER
CONCEPT Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu | perpustakaan.upi.edu
2
form of students’ expression, when students are raising question, it means they
are exposing what is in their mind during the time of learning (Marbach-Ad &
Sokolove, 2000). Therefore, students’ question can also be a diagnostic tool for
the teacher to discover students’ understanding.
Students do not only raise question simply because they do not know,
question also acts as something else apart from showing students’ puzzlement.
Students’ question plays many other important roles during a teaching-learning
process. According to Chin & Osborne (2010) in the process of argumentation,
questions generated by the students play important roles in the argumentative
process. Inparticular, the questions:
1. Foreground any incomprehension or points of disagreement students had;
and pushed them to articulate these either covertly to themselves or overtly
to their peers.
2. Prompted students to make explicit their beliefs and claims, thus displaying
their (mis)conceptions for peers to examine.
3. Spurred students to identify the key concepts relevant to the scientific
phenomenon at hand.
4. Impelled students to make connections between their various ideas, and
elicited self- or peer-explanations of the scientific phenomenon.
5. Challenged opposing view points, stimulating peers to critically evaluate
their initial ideas and to consider alternative propositions.
A recent research by Chin & Osborne (2010) showed that there is a
positive correlation between the numbers of questions students ask with the
generated argument they result in. It clearly indicates that students’ question
has a pivotal role in helping students construct their knowledge, which in turns
helps them to learn. Questions act as a scaffolding stairs for students, it helps
students to understand a certain knowledge step by step. It also helps as a
reminder for the students of what they understand and what they did not
understand on a discussion. When students raise questions, they are expressing
their curiosity toward something. A curious student is a student who wants to
learn more. Helping students learn from their own question could help
increasing their motivation towards learning.
Anggita novianti, 2015
STUDENTS’ QUESTIONSON INQUIRY-TYPE LABORATORY IN LEARNING HEAT TRANSFER
CONCEPT Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu | perpustakaan.upi.edu
3
Learning is not only about answering. Education is expected to help
students critically analyze the conditions around them. Researcher analyzes
answer, but answer does not come alone before a question was raised.
Recently, schools are educating students on how to answer compared to nurture
students on the culture of asking (Hofstein, Naaman, & Iyad 2010). Students
will later on be the master of answering but still a novice at questioning.
Questions are designed to probe, to find something that is not already
there, to discover relationships and possibilities that are not given (Bowker,
2010). Therefore investigative questions which trigger the students to discover
more and more likely to be answered by further investigations are considered
as higher-order level of question according to Hofstein, et al (2005). However a
research by Allmond & Makar (2010) reveals that writing investigative
questions emerged as challenging for the students. Students learn from the
depth of a question. The deeper the question is, the more knowledge students
will be able to learn. Students should not only nurture the habit of asking
question, but they also should be able to raise investigative question. For when
students are given a state of condition, they can find the possibilities that are
not given in the state. It would open their mind to solve their problem in many
alternatives of solutions.
Laboratory activities have long had a distinctive and central role in the
science curriculum, and science educators have suggested that many benefits
accrue from engaging students in science laboratory activities (Hofstein &
Lunetta, 2003). They also suggest that through a proper developed inquiry
laboratory the potential to enhance students’ meaningful learning, conceptual
understanding, and their understanding of the nature of science is more likely
to happen. Hands-on learning activities alone is believed to be not sufficient for
conceptual change and therefore students also needed an opportunity to process
for meaning through class discussion of the reasons behind what they observed
in their independent design activities according to Dalton et al. (1997).
For well over a century, laboratory experiences have been purported to
promote key science education goals including the enhancement of students’
understanding of scientific concepts, interest and motivation, scientific
Anggita novianti, 2015
STUDENTS’ QUESTIONSON INQUIRY-TYPE LABORATORY IN LEARNING HEAT TRANSFER
CONCEPT Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu | perpustakaan.upi.edu
4
practical skills and problem solving abilities, scientific habits of mind,
understanding of the nature of science (Hofstein & Lunetta, 2003). Simple
inquiry tasks popularly known as “cookbook” may not only fail to help
students learn to reason scientifically; they may also foster a nonscientific
epistemology in which scientific reasoning is viewed as simple, certain,
algorithmic, and focused at a surface level of observation (Chinn & Malhotra,
2002). It would also be a form of creative act to let students solve their
problem with their own way, as an application of what they have learned
during their life time.
A large number of learning outcomes, particularly inquiry abilities, are
best learned through investigations, and those motivated by students' own
questions can be invaluable learning opportunities. Students also learn the
characteristics of questions that can be properly investigated if they have
opportunities to pose and investigate questions (National Research Council,
2000).
It is important to know the quality and types of questions arisen by
students. For it is one of the indicators whether the students are able to apply
their scientific knowledge or not while working on a group with their peers.
Through this research, the flow of information among students inside their
discussion can also be seen. Whether all students equally contributed inside the
discussion or only dominant persons with high self-esteem and knowledge are
the ones in charge of the discussion and activity.
The chosen topic for this research was not randomly picked by the
researcher. Heat transfer is one of the topics which have the closest relation
with students’ daily life. Students are familiar with heat, when they feel
familiar with a certain topic it is expected that they raise more question in the
activity.
Inquiry-based learning has always been a major answer in the demand of
a new reformation in science teaching. Researches had proven that inquiry may
lead to a better understanding, better achievement, and a more probable
meaningful learning. Yet little research had been sufficient to describe how it
can affect the questions arisen from the students. Therefore the main focus of
Anggita novianti, 2015
STUDENTS’ QUESTIONSON INQUIRY-TYPE LABORATORY IN LEARNING HEAT TRANSFER
CONCEPT Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu | perpustakaan.upi.edu
5
this research is to investigate students’ questions on inquiry-type laboratory in
learning heat transfer.
B. Research Problem
Based upon the research background described previously, the research
problem of this study is “How is students’ question on inquiry-type
laboratory in learning heat transfer?”
C. Research Question
Based on the previously stated research problem, this research attempts to
explore the following questions:
1. How is students’ question during the planning stage of inquiry-type
laboratory?
2. How is students’ question during the experiment stage of inquiry-type
laboratory?
3. How is students’ question during the discussion stage of inquiry-type
laboratory?
D. Limitation of Problem
In order to avoid a widening problem in this research, then the research
will be limited to as follow:
1. Students’ questions in this research is the relevant questions posed by the
students which will be classified by its’ productivity (Jelly, 1985).
2. Inquiry-type laboratory features in this research is adapted from National
Research Council (2000)
3. The topic developed in this research is limited to heat transfer such as;
conduction, convection and radiation.
Anggita novianti, 2015
STUDENTS’ QUESTIONSON INQUIRY-TYPE LABORATORY IN LEARNING HEAT TRANSFER
CONCEPT Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu | perpustakaan.upi.edu
6
E. Research Objective
The research objective is specified to as follow:
1. To identify students’ question during the planning stage of inquiry-type
laboratory
2. To identify students’ question during the experiment stage of inquiry-type
laboratory
3. To identify students’ question during the discussion stage of inquiry-type
laboratory
F. Significance of Research
The result of this research is expected to give a good input to as follow:
1. For Teachers
This research is expected to become a reference in designing an inquiry-type
laboratory in order to develop students’ questions-asking ability.
2. For Students
Through inquiry-type laboratory, it is expected that the student develop
more and better questions in order to understand science not only as a
product, but also to understand science as a process
3. For Other Researchers
As input and introductory study to comprehend the effect of inquiry-type
laboratory towards students’ question-asking ability in an instruction with
different variable and more problems
Anggita novianti, 2015
STUDENTS’ QUESTIONSON INQUIRY-TYPE LABORATORY IN LEARNING HEAT TRANSFER
CONCEPT Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu | perpustakaan.upi.edu