Research On The Influence Of Inquiry-based Learning Based On The Smart Classroom On College Students’ Higher Order Thinking Skills

Since the 21st century,while all sectors of society have been developing rapidly,the demand for contemporary college students’ ability has also been increasing.Cultivating students’ higher order thinking skills(HOTS)is one of the goals in education fields all around the world.HOTS are not only the important parts of 21st century skills but also the necessary abilities for contemporary college students to deal with various unknown problems in the future.Therefore,cultivating college students’HOTS has been recognized as an important aspect of educational goals by major colleges and universities.Based on this,major colleges and universities have reformed the existing traditional teaching methods from varying aspects,for example,encouraging student-centered instructional approaches to cultivate students’ initiative in learning process is one of the educational reforms.Among all the active student-centered instructional approaches,inquiry-based learning(IBL)approach has been attracted by many people both in practice and research field in education.With the development of information technology,it has become an indispensable part of digital indigenous people’s daily life.Especially for today’s college students,information technology is also an essential part to help them conduct learning activities.As an inevitable product of the development of information technology,smart classrooms(SC)is currently receiving attention from major colleges and universities.The original construction intention of SC is to advocate students’ learning initiative,and this construction concept is the same as the teaching intention of IBL approach.Therefore,SC can be said to be the best learning environment for college students to carry out IBL activities.However,the issue that how to conform to the development of information technology in the formal educational systems,such as colleges and universities,to make full use of the SC,and then to support the conduction of IBL remains to be answered.And now,the response to this issue is particularly important.Therefore,a series of studies have been conducted around this issue in this paper.To respond to the issue that how to make best use of the SC to support the conduction of IBL to cultivate students’ HOTS.This paper was carried out from the following four branch research questions,including,(1)What are the key learning factors in the SC and how do they affect the development of college students’ HOTS?(2)What are the basic processes of the IBL and what are the technology-assisted principles followed by students when conducting IBL in the SC?(3)What are the impacts of different levels’ inquiry learning activities that conducted in the SC on college students’HOTS?(4)What is the impact of IBL activities that conducted in the SC based on specific instructional model on college students’HOTS?To answer the research question 1,an empirical study was conducted.Firstly,based on the literature review and social cognitive theory,a structural equation model of college students’ HOTS’influencing factors in the SC was constructed.And then,a sample of 217 first-year Chinese college students,who studied in the SC for one semester completed a survey that measured their perceptions on the key influencing learning factors(SC preference,peer interaction,learning motivation,learning strategy,HOTS)in the SC.After this,Partial Least Square was used to examine the constructed structural equation model.The results indicated that peer interaction and learning motivation had a direct impact on students’ HOTS.Furthermore,indirect effects were found between students’ learning strategy and HOTS through the mediator peer interaction,and between SC preferences and HOTS through the following:learning motivation,the combination of learning strategy and peer interaction,and the combination of learning motivation,learning strategy and peer interaction.Based on these findings,this study recommends that,when teaching in the SC,instructors should focus on improving peer interaction and learning motivation,as well as SC preferences and learning strategy,to hone students’ HOTS.This empirical study was functioned as a base of the next three sub-researches.To answer the research question 2,another study was conducted.Based on the literature review,the basic elements of the IBL were developed through inductive and deductive methods,including theme design,implementation and evaluation.And then,the technology-assisted principles that should be followed when carrying out learning activities in SC were developed.The principle was that when teachers and students used technologies in the SC,they should proceed step by step,gradually changed from imitation to exploration to evaluation.After this,a workflow of the IBL that conducted in the SC to promote students’ HOTS was constructed.This workflow was used to provide a reference for the IBL activities that implemented in the next sub-researches.To answer the research question 3,another empirical study was conducted.58 freshmen who studied in the SC participated in this study.A single-group interrupted time-series quasi-experimental method was adopted.During this study,students continuously carried out four different levels’ inquiry activities,namely confirmed inquiry,structured inquiry,guided inquiry and open inquiry,one by one.After each inquiry,students’ HOTS were measured.Finally,the paired sample t-test method was used to analyze the difference between students’ HOTS of the subsequent inquiry levels.The research results showed that students’ HOTS showed a gradual increase with the continuous improvement of the inquiry level.The results also showed that from confirmation inquiry to structured inquiry,there was no significant increase in students’ HOTS;from structured inquiry to guided inquiry,there was a significant increase in the students’HOTS;from guided inquiry to open inquiry,there was a significant increase in students’ HOTS.This research results implicated that when carrying out IBL activities and using the technologies in the SC learning environment,both instructors and students should follow the principle of gradual progress.When using technologies in the SC,they should proceed step by step,gradually changed from imitation to exploration to evaluation.When designing the IBL activities,they should gradually transfer from the confirmed inquiry to open inquiry.And thenstudents’ HOTS could be promoted maximally.To answer the research question 4,the third empirical study was conducted.57 freshmen who studied in the SC and traditional classroom respectively participated in this study.This study also adopted quasi-experimental method and lasted one semester.During this study,students in the control group received traditional lecture-based instruction in the traditional classroom,students in the experimental group received inquiry-based instruction based on the 5E(Engagement,Exploration,Explanation,Elaboration,Evaluation)instruction model in the SC.Students’ HOTS were measured at the beginning and the end of the term.The independent sample t-test was conducted between the experimental group and the control group to examine the difference between students’ HOTS before the experiment.The result confirmed that no significant difference existed between the experimental group and the control group before the instructional intervention.Analysis of covariance was conducted to examine potential differences between the experimental group and the control group after the experiment.The results of this study showed that the students in the experimental group had a significantly higher level of HOTS than the students in the control group.These findings indicated that compared with the traditional teaching method in the traditional classroom,the teaching method based on the 5E inquiry model in the SC can effectively improve college students’ HOTS.The above four sub-researches gave a progressive and specific response to the question that how to make full use of the SC learning environment to support the conduction of IBL to cultivate college students’ HOTS.The first and second research responded to the question that how to make full use of the SC.The third and fourth research responded to the question that what were the implementation effectiveness according to the methods proposed by previous two researches.All the four sub-researches provided great references for subsequent relevant instructors and researchers to carry out IBL activities in the SC.