ICST Transactions on e-Education and e-Learning July-September 2012 | Volume 12 | Issue 7-9 | e5 EAI European Alliance for Innovation ICST Transactions on e-Education and e-Learning Research Article 1 Scaffolding in Mobile Science Enquiry-based Learning Using Ontologies Sohaib Ahmed 1, *, David Parsons 1 and Mandia Mentis 2 1 Institute of Information & Mathematical Science, Massey University, Auckland, New Zealand 2 School of Education, Massey University, Auckland, New Zealand Abstract The use of ontologies has become increasingly widespread in many areas, particularly in technology enhanced learning. They appear promising in supporting knowledge representation and learning content creation for domains of interest. In this paper, we show how ontology-based scaffolding has helped mobile learners to perform scientific enquiry investigations. Enquiry-based learning aims to provide educational activities and tools to assists students to learn science by doing science. In this study, a design science research approach was taken to creating an ontology-driven application for a science content domain, which has been evaluated with high school science students. The results showed the significant value of ontologies in scaffolding learning content in such enquiry-based learning environments. With this application, students were found to learn science in more meaningful and engaged ways as well as developing positive attitudes towards mobile learning. Keywords: Abduction, Domain Ontology, Enquiry-based Learning, Mobile Learning, Ontology-driven Application, Scaffolding. Received on 18 February 2012; accepted on 27 April 2012; published on 10 August 2012 Copyright © 2011 Ahmed et al., licensed to ICST. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/), which permits unlimited use, distribution and reproduction in any medium so long as the original work is properly cited. doi: 10.4108/eeel.2012.07-09.e5 1. Introduction* There is growing evidence for the potential value of ontologies in education [1] [2] [3] ranging from the use of knowledge representation and inference in the creation of learning content and applications to the definition of domain-specific terminologies. Different ontology applications have been developed in which ontologies are defined as a conceptual model for learning content components [2]. This paper describes how ontologies have been applied for scaffolding learning content in a mobile science enquiry-based learning environment. 1.1 Enquiry-based Learning **Corresponding author. Email:s.ahmed@massey.ac.nz Enquiry-based learning aims to provide educational activities and tools to allow students to learn science by doing science, offering resources to help learners comprehend specific domains by engaging in scientific reasoning processes such as hypothesis generation, experimentation and evidence evaluation [4]. Rapid advances in mobile technologies are changing the way that learners access content in enquiry-based learning environments where a great deal of information is easily accessible. Mobile technologies can play an important role in creating these environments, because their portability allows learning on-the-fly “anywhere or anytime” [5]. Further, these handheld devices not only support the learning experience inside the classroom, but also allow learners to perform scientific enquiries in natural environments. Traditionally, school science has followed a hypothetico- deductive model [6] in which learners are required to process ideas (i.e. hypotheses). This type of enquiry model