Which Type of Inquiry Project Do High School Biology Students Prefer

In teaching inquiry to high school students, educators differ on which method of
teaching inquiry is more effective: Guided or open inquiry? This paper examines the
influence of these two different inquiry learning approaches on the attitudes of Israeli high
school biology students toward their inquiry project. The results showed significant
differences between the two groups: Open inquiry students were more satisfied and felt they
gained benefits from implementing the project to a greater extent than guided inquiry
students. On the other hand, regarding documentation throughout the project, guided
inquiry students believed that they conducted more documentation, as compared to their
open inquiry peers. No significant differences were found regarding ‘the investment of
time', but significant differences were found in the time invested and difficulties which
arose concerning the different stages of the inquiry process: Open inquiry students believed
they spent more time in the first stages of the project, while guided inquiry students
believed they spent more time in writing the final paper. In addition, other differences were
found: Open inquiry students felt more involved in their project, and felt a greater sense of
cooperation with others, in comparison to guided inquiry students. These findings may help
teachers who hesitate to teach open inquiry to implement this method of inquiry; or at least
provide their students with the opportunity to be more involved in inquiry projects, and
ultimately provide their students with more autonomy, high-order thinking, and a deeper
understanding in performing science