• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.347-360
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• 2016

This study focused on the use of student assessment activities to investigate the impact on reflective thinking in Argument-based Inquiry. The participants of the study were 166 10th grade students (six classes). Over one semester, students participated in five ABI programs that we developed. The experimental group (84 students) was taught Argument-Based Inquiry with students' self and peer assessment activities. The comparative group (82 students) was taught without the activities. We analyzed students' reflective writing to investigate how the student assessment activities influenced the students' reflective thinking. We also used the interviews and surveys to examine the validity of student assessment activities. According to analysis of the reflective writing, the experimental group had a significantly higher mean score than the comparative group in the 3rd and 5th writing. The ratio of students who showed a metacognitive level of reflection with regard to analysis of inquiry process, understanding of learning, and change of thinking increased in both groups, but the experimental group's ratio was higher than the comparative group's. The result of analysis of the reflective practice showed that the ratio of the experimental group's students who reached the metacognitive level of reflection in their writing increased, while the comparative group's decreased. Therefore, we conclude that student assessment activities can create a learning environment that facilitates student participation, increases the students' engagement in the learning process, and can be used as a tool to scaffold learning.