Changes in Children's Questioning during Guided Co-inquiry with Mentors.

N

58

Brainstorming; Children; Experiments; Graphic Organizers; Imitation; Inquiry; Journal Writing; Mentors; Metacognition; Modeling (Psychology); Observational Learning; Pilot Projects; Questioning Techniques

This pilot study explored the characteristics of children's co-inquiry with a mentor and the changes occurring in their questioning with prolonged engagement in mediated inquiry. Six graduate students, who were practicing teachers, acted as mentors to individual students for inquiry into child-selected topics for 10 weeks. Children ranged in age from 5 to 13 years and were from a variety of ethnic and socioeconomic groups. Strategies used by the mentors included brainstorming to determine the children's prior topic knowledge and their current questions, experiments to explore specific questions, visits to sites pertinent to the topic, Internet sessions, and graphic organizers to record and examine data. Mediating children's inquiries involved modeling questioning syntax, mediating question sequences, and being actively involved in the inquiry. Interactive sessions were audiotaped. Co-inquiring pairs maintained Inquiry Journals in written or graphic format to record questions asked, resources consulted, findings obtained, and new directions for inquiry. Mentors maintained reflective journals and attended weekly graduate seminars on co-inquiry with the Principal Investigator. Findings revealed that children focused on the real topic of their inquiry around Week 3 or 4. When children experienced an anomaly or became aware of variables related to cause-effect relationships associated with the topic, they moved the inquiry toward a deepening study of the topic. Depth of study was contingent on time of exploration. Graphic organization of data was found to facilitate depth of inquiry and examination of relationships among variables. (Contains 34 references.) (KDFB)

1996

ED397945