The Effect of an Instructional Intervention Based on the Use of Video-Worked Examples to Promote Elementary Students’ Science Process Skills

Abstract

Several reforms in national and international curricula have been implemented to introduce inquiry-based activities to promote different science process skills. Science skills require high cognitive effort for students and, thus, they need supports to develop them in an inquiry process. Among these supports, video-worked examples demonstrate how to perform these skills and provide students with a scheme for an inquiry activity. Recently, video-examples has been explored in primary and secondary education with promising results. However, to gain a broader perspective on their effectiveness, this article aims to evaluate the consistent improvement of each science skill from a comparison with a control group carrying out two consecutive classroom interventions. This research included 44 students in fifth and sixth grades and a quasi-experimental research design with a quantitative method has been applied. In the experimental group, video examples had a positive influence on the participants’ inquiry behavior. For most of the science skills, students showed a consistent improvement in both the first and second inquiries supported by these videos. However, the control group showed less predictable outcomes, as some skills improved only during the first or the second intervention, but not throughout the whole study.