The effect of an online-guided inquiry approach on students’ science achievement, retention, reading comprehension and scientific process skills

Background The ongoing work of educators at the national and international levels aims to equip students with high-level knowledge, and the studies have continued increasingly since the middle of the last century. Studies in the field show that it is possible to improve student achievement by employing hands-on activities.Purpose The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of an online guided inquiry approach to improve sixth-grade students’ science course achievements, retention, scientific process skills and reading comprehension skills.Sample For this purpose, the study group of the research consisted of 60 students enrolled in the sixth-grade of a public school with a middle-upper socioeconomic level. The distribution of the students between the experiment and control groups was determined to be 30 students per group.Design and method In this study, a static group comparison design was used in accordance with the determined purpose. While the achievement test, scientific process skills test and reading comprehension skills test were applied to the experiment group in which the online guided inquiry approach was carried out and the control group in which the online traditional method was carried out, the achievement test was applied again as a retention test 6 weeks after the interaction.Results The results of the analyses demonstrated that there was no pre-existing difference between the experimental and control groups. In order to determine the effect of teaching methods on science course achievements, retention, scientific process skills and reading comprehension skills, a repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed for achievement and retention variables, and analysis of variance (MANOVA) was performed for scientific process skills and reading comprehension skills.Conclusion As a result, it can be said that the online guided inquiry approach has a positive effect on students’ science course achievement, retention, scientific process skills and reading comprehension skills. In addition, this research may have some implications for curriculum developers, researchers and science teachers in terms of the effectiveness of such learning environments through the online guided inquiry approach.