Interaction of students’ academic background and support levels in a resource-based learning environment on Earth’s movement Wing Mui Winnie So* and Siu Cheung Kong Department of Mathematics, Science, Social Sciences and Technology, The Hong Kong Institute of Education, Hong Kong, People’s Republic of China (Received 11 June 2008; final version received 21 July 2008) This research aims to study how a resource-based learning environment (RBLE) helps primary students develop better understanding of the Earth’s movement. One objective of the study is to establish an RBLE by creating authentic contexts, selecting appropriate resources, designing relevant tools and adopting necessary scaffolds. The other objective is to examine the effects of the RBLE on primary students’ understanding of the Earth’s movement in different classroom settings with varied teaching support levels. Research methodology includes pre-lesson and post-lesson tests to study students’ understanding, observation and analysis of lessons to examine the teaching scaffolding employed, interviews and teacher’s written reflection after all the lessons to investigate their views of the use of RBLE. The findings indicated that there is an interaction effect between students’ academic background and settings of learning, and that the RBLE provides little support to students of low academic background, but is very effective to students of higher academic background helping them to construct an improved understanding of the Earth’s movement. The article suggested an integrated use of teacher-regulated inquiry approach and interactive inquiry approach for the better use of the RBLE. Keywords: Earth’s movement; inquiry learning; resource-based learning environment; scaffolding Introduction There is an emerging body of research on students’ understanding of natural phenomena, including that of astronomy (Vosniadou, 1991), the planets (Bakas & Mikropoulos, 2003; Jones & Lynch, 1987), the day and night cycle (Brewer & Vosniadou, 1994), and the seasons (Brewer & Vosniadou, 1990; Sneider & Pulos, 1983; Trumper, 2001). This body of research is grounded in studies that have been conducted on children’s misconceptions and varied understanding of these phenomena. It has aroused the concerns of educators and teachers about children’s difficulty in developing an understanding of natural phenomenon with the limited teaching aids. In view of this, there are suggestions of different strategies (Vosniadou, Skopeliti, & Ikospentaki, 2004) to enhance students’ understanding, which include the design of virtual environments on the Internet (Bakas & Mikropoulos, 2003) to enhance students’ comprehension of planetary phenomena. *Corresponding author. Email: wiso@ied.edu.hk Interactive Learning Environments Vol. 18, No. 2, June 2010, 153–176 ISSN 1049-4820 print/ISSN 1744-5191 online Ó 2010 Taylor & Francis DOI: 10.1080/10494820802393788 http://www.informaworld.com