A Study of Inquiry Activity in Elementary School Children

Recent research reports (Schroder, Driver, and Streufert, 1967; Shulman, 1965; Shulman, Loupe, and Piper, 1968) have shown that human inquiry as a complete process is amenable to systematic study. Earlier research (Suchman, 1961; Suchman, 1962) investigated a single aspect of inquiry activity in elementary school students, i.e., question asking, but a general study of children was needed. Two models were explored for their applicability in the development of a task that would be appropriate for elementary school students. Miller, Galanter, and Pribram (1960) theorized that an organism's behavior was based on test-operate-test-exit units which they called TOTEs. Extrapolating on the basis of their model, a complete inquiry could take place if materials were available which allowed children to test for incongruencies and if a set of data were present on which they could operate. Exiting would consist of deciding on some resolution to the incongruency to which a student had chosen to respond. The way to create operable materials was further elucidated by Shulman (1965). He presented a model which distinguished four components of human inquiry-problem sensitivity, problem formulation, search behavior and resolution-and developed corresponding inquiry measures. Shulman, in his study of teacher-trainees (1965, p. 266), demonstrated that precise and meaningful descriptions of inquiry behavior can be made without the necessity of presenting subjects with specific 'problems' to solve. The early stages of the inquiry process, such as