Steps to Inquiry (SI) Framework
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taken from Rees et al (2013)
The SI framework provides a structured approach for teachers to support open inquiry. It
guides teachers and students through a series of interactive diagrams that prompt students to
do specific actions: they make their own observations; ask their own questions; identify
variables that can be changed; identify dependent variables that can be measured or observed
to determine the effect of a change; phrase their own testable questions; make predictions
based on their prior knowledge; address their testable question by writing their own
procedures; conduct their own investigations; report their findings to the class; and identify
further questions. It takes a number of classes to complete. As students get more used to
leading their own cycles of inquiry, the scaffolding given by the teacher is reduced. It
involves a number of steps and the creation of different class posters which document the
group discussions which take place.
The lesson begins by having the teacher demonstrate a particular investigation. Students
observe and document their observations on post-it notes. The post-it notes are then placed on
a poster (Poster One) at the top of the class under the heading “What did I observe?” On a
different coloured post-it, the students are asked to write questions about what they observed
and again these post-its are placed on the same poster under the heading “What am I
wondering?”. The teacher then sorts out the post-its according to what question can be
answered by (a) using scientific investigations (b) through library research and (c) doing a
creative writing project- the latter two questions can be addressed in later classes. The teacher
then asks which observations could be measured. The post-it notes from this section are then
moved on to a second poster labelled under the heading “Possible Dependent Variables”.
Then the teacher asks students to identify things that could change or vary which in turn
could affect the way the dependant variable behaves. These are placed on the second poster
marked “Variables”.
In step 3, the teacher chooses an example from “Possible Dependent Variables” and moves it
to a third poster under the heading “Dependant Variable”. Then the teacher chooses an
example from step 2(b) and moves it to the third poster under “Independent Variable”. The
teacher then moves the remaining post-its from the “Variable” box on 2(a) to the boxes
labelled ‘‘Control Variable’’ on the third poster
In Step 4 the teacher moves the post-its from the boxes labelled Independent Variable and
Dependent Variable on the third poster to the boxes at the top of the fourth poster in order to
phrase the testable question ‘‘If I change this Independent Variable what will happen to the
Dependent Variable’’. In Step 5, the students make reasoned predictions about what they
expect when they try their experiment.
In the SI framework, further interactive diagrams (not shown) guide the students through the
remainder of the cycle of inquiry, including writing their procedures and materials list,
conducting their experiment, collecting/graphing data, interpreting results, and presenting
them to the class.
Reference
Rees, C., Pardo, R. and Parker, J. (2013) “Steps to opening scientific inquiry: Preservice teachers’ practicum experiences with a new support framework”, Journal of Science
Teacher Education, 24, 475-496.