SOUTH CAROLINA: Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism, Inquiry Sections, P.O.
When achievement was measured by high-level Bloom items, inquiry sections outperformed noninquiry sections.
Inquiry sections also expressed better attitudes toward collaboration (n = 73, Minquiry = 3.50; n = 71, Mdidactic = 3.30; F = 4.06, p = 0.05).
On high-level Bloom items, inquiry sections outperformed didactic sections (n = 73, Minquiry = 68.9%; n = 71, Mdidactic = 64.9%; F = 4.15, p = 0.04; see Table 3).
In fact, within the inquiry sections, the two highest reasoning gains were seen in two low reasoners placed within a single homogeneous group.
In addition, students in the inquiry sections expressed greater confidence in their own reasoning ability (n = 73, Minquiry = 3.35; n = 71, Mdidactic = 3.08; F = 6.49, p = 0.01).
Within the inquiry sections, students began each topic with an exploration of some phenomenon followed by applicable term introduction and application activities.
Further, inquiry sections had higher scores on reasoning transfer items, with significantly higher performance within homogeneous groups, showing that inquiry instruction improves reasoning skills more effectively than noninquiry instruction.
In fact, within the inquiry sections, the students in homogeneous low groups equaled the performance of students in homogeneous high groups within inquiry (n = 3, Mhomogeneous low = 4.00; n = 16, Mhomogeneous high = 3.44; p = NS).
However, the inquiry sections significantly outperformed the didactic sections on the reasoning transfer items (n = 73, Minquiry = 2.89; n = 71, Mdidactic = 2.52; F = 6.42, p = 0.01; see Table 3; reasoning transfer items were calculated based on a six-point scale).
