RESULT OR CONCLUSION - STUDENTS DIFFERENTIATION BETWEEN EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS

Science curricula often require students to collect, record, and descr ibe experimental observations and results, as well as to draw conclusi ons. The first purpose oi this study is to document and analyze studen ts' performance regarding the differentiation between results and conc lusions, while they are engaged in scientific investigations within bi ology classrooms. The second purpose is to describe and analyze teache rs' thinking regarding this issue. The findings show that while learni ng biology in school, students often have difficulties in differentiat ing between experimental results and conclusions. Although teachers we re highly aware of their students' difficulties and held a rich set of ideas about the sources of those difficulties, the instructional mean s they used were insufficient. Two hypotheses are suggested as the sou rce of students' difficulties. Further research is needed to investiga te those hypotheses and to formulate recommendations for improved inst ructional means.