Chemistry Reference
In-Depth Information
appropriate to fulfill these demands in special-needs contexts. I selected level
2 (guided inquiry) to be the optimal aim for my students as it balances structure
and autonomy (cp. Jang et al.,
2010
). Being the researcher and science teacher at the
same time, I implemented the inquiry approach in my special educational needs
class with an exploratory researcher
s view on its success. I wanted my science
teaching practice to be best suited for the students.
Two boys of the class were chosen for deeper analysis. Comparing the two
different students should help to be more precise about the interpretation of the
data. The students were selected because they differed clearly in interest, emotional
and social development stages, as well as previous knowledge and skills in science:
Lennard
2
'
10 years old; developmental age is two or even 3 years less; very curious
and imaginative; needed and demanded a lot of affection; was easily
distracted; avoided working on new exercises; afraid of new challenges;
often refused to participate; in science classes, showed broad knowledge
for his age and asked questions interestedly
Paul
2
12 years old; class representative; wanted to be considered cool and
therefore often pretended to be dull; dominated by the conflict
“independence vs. acknowledgement” (Bergsson,
2006
); able to work
quite speedily and with high engagement; as much as he liked to help
others, he also liked to distract them; refusal strategy was to behave
disrespectfully toward teachers; in science classes, behavior and
engagement depended on his mood and state of mind on a given day
(cp. Abels,
2012
)
This section has demarcated the “individual unit” of the study, which classifies
the analysis as a case study (Flyvbjerg,
2011
). Case study is an appropriate method
as it allows evaluating an educational experience very specifically (cp. Lloyd,
2010
). It is usable if there are how and why questions about contemporary events
and if there is no control of behavioral events (Yin,
2009
).
The research question of the case study was the following: How can guided
inquiry (planning, conducting, and interpreting a scientific experiment) success-
fully be implemented in a chemistry class attended by students with cognitive and
emotional/behavior disorders? Success is indicated by basic engagement and active
participation as well as by the achievement in topic-related skills. As outlined above
the main purpose of the study was to explore and better understand how the
emotionally sorely afflicted students of the class handled the implementation of
guided inquiry. The hypothesis was that guided inquiry was appropriate to engage
the students in chemistry learning, so that they would not show their usual emo-
tional lability but participate persistently in the task.
2
Names were changed.
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