Web -supported sustained inquiry within a science learning cycle in a middle school classroom

The purpose of this study was to examine student learning through the process of Web-based sustained inquiry, and to describe and analyze ways in which the Web and associated technology tools contributed to, interacted with, and affected learning in this environment. Specific questions that were examined through this research include: (1) How do students' learning strategies impact Web-based sustained inquiry and resulting learning and products? (2) How do students' individual differences impact inquiry/research in a Web environment? (3) How are learning outcomes reflected in student research papers? (4) How does the classroom under study support open-ended learning and Web-based sustained inquiry?;In this context the primary goal of the inquiry process was to enable students to apply content from a learning cycle to new self-selected areas of interest. To this end the inquiry process met limited success. Most of the students in this case did not substantially expand their understanding of how the concepts from the science class could be applied to different, more authentic topics. It was clear that there was a lack of cognitive apprenticeship and a lack of direct support for students to enable them to think about the content of their research.;While the Web is an open-ended learning environment (Hill and Hannafin, 1997) with characteristics that give it potential to facilitate open-ended constructivist learning, the students in this study used few of the features that make the Web such a potentially rich place for learning to occur. Students developed strategies to make the open-ended environment function more like a traditional, teacher directed environment.;Each pair of researchers developed strategies to bend the open-ended learning environment to meet their needs. When answers to questions were not easily discovered, they used the strategy of question drift to compensate. They sought out information on the Web that looked much like the type of information they were accustomed to using in their traditional teacher-directed classrooms (textbooks). And, they redefined the research process to be more like an end of the chapter assignment in a science textbook.