Welche Rückmeldungen wirken am besten?: Ergebnisse einer empirischen Untersuchung von Rückmeldeformen beim Planen von Experimenten

Scientific inquiry is an important approach for teaching and learning science. By doing inquiry new knowledge can be generated. However, students’ have to learn how to do inquiry. To plan an investigation is one important practice when doing inquiry. Only based on the results of a controlled investigation verified conclusions can be drawn. Thus, students have to apply the control-of-variable-strategy to their experimental plans. However, several difficulties were reported in previous studies that highlight the importance of giving students individual support during inquiry phases. One possible approach to support students’ is formative assessment and especially feedback. Its effect on students’ learning was subject of several studies that report inconsistent results. The aim of the presented work is the development and evaluation of different types of feedback that support the application of the control-of-variable-strategy when planning investigations. The effectiveness of different feedback types was evaluated by an intervention study in the field of chemistry education. Feedback that provides information about the learning goal, the current learning level and possible next steps in learning was compared with feedback that only provides information about the learning goal and the current learning level as well as with self-assessment. The results indicate that feedback focusing on the learning goal, the current learning level and next steps in learning is superior in comparison to the other two feedback types. In the discussion, the present results are related to the results of previous studies in this research field. Besides, perspectives for further research are highlighted.