Building upon what is already there: The role of prior knowledge, background information, and scaffolding in inquiry learning

Prior knowledge is one of the most important factors for learning. During the iterative cycles of inquiry learning, learners' prior domain knowledge is modified, refined, and further developed, provided that learners act upon self-assessments of their understanding and that they can actually think of appropriate hypotheses. Furthermore, knowledge about inquiry strategies influences the quality of the learners' inquiry activities, and the lack there of requires compensatory support. This symposium brings together recent work about the role of prior knowledge for inquiry learning and ways to compensate for the lack of it. The four papers focus on the role of learners' self-assessment of their current understanding for their subsequent inquiry activities, on the gradual refinement of their knowledge on the basis of reflection, and on prior presentation of theoretical background information and concurrent presentation of inquiry strategies as ways to compensate for lack of prior theoretical knowledge and strategy knowledge, respectively