Research On Senior High School Students’ Problem-generating Ability In Geographical Scientific Inquiry

As the beginning of scientific inquiry activities,"problem generation" determines the direction of the whole follow-up inquiry."What kind of question is a good inquiry question","How to ask a good inquiry question","How do students ask inquiry questions" and other topics have received more and more attention in the research.The existing research on students’ "problem generation ability" is ultimately based on the problem itself generated by students,while ignoring the cognitive process of students’ problem generation.However,in order to study whether a problem has the possibility of scientific inquiry,it is not enough to focus on the generation of specific problems,but also to go deep into the process of problem generation.Based on scientific inquiry and relevant theories in the field of cognitive psychology,this study,from the perspective of geographical inquiry,designs geographical problem situations,and analyzes the different levels and characteristics of students’ problem-generating abilities in geoscientific inquiry by collecting information about the cognitive process of students’ generation of problems.The findings are as follows:(1)In geoscientific inquiry,high school students’ problem generation skills present three stages.From low level to high level,they are "problem generation stage based on situational information","problem generation stage based on existing knowledge" and "problem generation phase based on abstract elements".According to the complexity of cognitive operation in the process of problem generation,students in the three stages of problem generation have six different levels of problem generation.(2)In geographical scientific inquiry,senior high school students have low problem generation ability,mainly produce problems based on existing knowledge,and the cognitive process of question generation is relatively simple;(3)There is no significant correlation between senior high school students’ problem generation ability and geography academic level in geography scientific inquiry.According to the above conclusions,this study proposes the following intervention measures to cultivate students’ problem generation ability:(1)strengthen the attention to problem generation ability and improve students’ problem awareness;(2)create situations and emphasize independent inquiry;(3)strengthen the "relevance" of knowledge and put forward high-level inquiry questions;(4)change the evaluation methods and emphasize process evaluation.