Thinking Like Scientists: Using the Nature of
Science as a Metacognitive Resource
Student Participant Semi-Structured Interview Script
To be asked immediately after inquiry lessons
Focus Group Questions
- What
was the topic of your last science class?
- How
did you think like a scientist in that lesson?
- How
did you act like a scientist in that lesson?
- How do
you think science class is different from English, history or math class?
- How
can you think about your thinking?
- What
does it mean to you to think like a scientist?
- Are
there other ways of thinking?
- Do
scientists behave differently than other people?
Think-Aloud Protocol
- One of
the lessons will be chosen randomly
- Researcher
will model what thinking aloud sounds like for the participants
- Students
will re-do the inquiry lesson while thinking aloud
- Researcher
will ask students to talk about why they made decisions during the inquiry
lesson if the students do not talk about it explicitly