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William Atkins
Wednesday, 18 June 2008 19:55
“And sometimes pupils misunderstood key principles because their teachers did not understand them well enough to give a clear explanation.”
"Science teaching is at its best when pupils are encouraged to come up with their own ideas to record and plan their investigations, Ofsted says.”
"Schools where pupils' achievements are higher focused on developing their investigative skills, the report adds.”
"One pupil in a particularly successful school said she enjoyed science because she could do what she wanted - pupils were allowed to decide what and how to investigate.”
“Another boy said: ‘When we do practicals, it helps me understand better.’”
In the United States, back in 1992, the Department of Education and the National Science Foundation endorsed mathematics and science curricula that "promote active learning, inquiry, problem solving, cooperative learning, and other instructional methods that motivate students.”
The National Committee on Science Education Standards and Assessment, also in 1992, stated "school science education must reflect science as it is practiced” and science education is "to prepare students who understand the modes of reasoning of scientific inquiry and can use them."
More specifically, "students need to have many and varied opportunities for collecting, sorting and cataloging; observing, note taking and sketching; interviewing, polling, and surveying" [ERIC Clearinghouse for Science Mathematics and Environmental: “Teaching Science through Inquiry”]
The article continues to state, "students are likely to begin to understand the natural world if they work directly with natural phenomena, using their senses to observe and using instruments to extend the power of their senses.”
In summary to the way that science should be taught: "If a single word had to be chosen to describe the goals of science educators during the 30-year period that began in the late 1950s, it would have to be INQUIRY." [DeBoer, G. E. (1991). A history of ideas in science education. New York: Teachers College Press.]
A definition of inquiry is “The act of asking: a request for information.”
Comments from the author follow.
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