Implementing virtual collaborative inquiry practises in a middle-school context

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to investigate the challenges that relate to the implementation of virtual inquiry practises in middle school. The case was a school course in which a group of Finnish students (N = 14) and teachers (N = 7) completed group inquiries through virtual collaboration, using a web-based learning environment. The task was to accomplish a cross-disciplinary inquiry into cultural issues. The students worked mainly at home and took much responsibility for their course achievements. The investigators analysed the pedagogical design of the course and the content of the participants' interaction patterns in the web-based environment, using qualitative content analysis and social network analysis. The findings suggest that the students succeeded in producing distinctive cultural products, and both the students and the teachers adopted novel roles during the inquiry. The web-based learning environment was used more as a coordination tool for organizing the collaborative work than as a forum for epistemic inquiry. The tension between the school curriculum and the inquiry practises was manifest in the participants' discussions of the assessment criteria of the course.

Keywords:

• Progressive inquiry learning
• Virtual learning
• Collaborative knowledge building
• Pedagogical design
• Pedagogical innovation
• Middle school

Acknowledgements

The research reported in the article was part of the Educational technology project of the City of Helsinki in the years 1995 – 2000. We want to thank all teachers and students who participated in the investigated course and all the persons who have helped improve the present article, especially Jiri Lallimo, Kai Hakkarainen, Sami Paavola and Hal White. We also wish to thank two anonymous reviewers for their useful comments on an earlier version of this article. The study was supported partially by a grant from the Research Council of Culture and Society of the Academy of Finland (No. 1206380) and the first author was supported by a personal grant from the Academy of Finland in the years 2004 – 2005 (No. 105205).