Using+the+Internet+to+Promote+Inquiry-Based+Learning

 **Jill Castek, University of California, Berkeley** jcastek@berkeley.edu This study examined the nature of instructional scaffolding and how it was used support online reading comprehension among ethnically and linguistically diverse 4th/5th grade students in Title I school. Instruction utilized an inquiry approach and unfolded across three instructional units that built toward students’ completion of an inquiry project. Using a sequential mixed method approach and recursive analytic techniques, themes describing classroom contexts and scaffolding conditions were distilled from qualitative data sources. Six themes emerged from the analysis of classroom learning contexts. These themes described the participation formats, learner interactions, and instructional practices that appeared to prompt acquisition of the new literacies of online reading comprehension. Three additional themes emerged from the analysis of scaffolding conditions. These themes indicated that the teacher’s role changed, students scaffolded each another, and the transition from teacher scaffolding to students teaching each another was swift. These findings suggest ways to organize literacy and content learning when laptops are a central part of literacy and content learning. They also suggest a shift away from the teacher as the primary instructor toward opportunities where students teach one another.

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Overview of Themes