Inquiry-Based Science Education: Theory and praxis

Abstract

Inquiry as a process of constructing knowledge about the physical and biological world is an integral part of science and it has also been introduced in science education a long time ago. In fact, it was thought that students’ engagement in a knowledgepursuing process similar to the scientific one, would be beneficial for their learning. In the past, prominent pedagogues, like Dewey for instance (1997), argued for instructional approaches that are based on experiences and reflective thinking and trigger students’ interest. These suggestions were linked to constructivist theories of learning (Bruner, 1961; Ausubel, Novak & Hanesian, 1978) and gave rise to a model of instruction that was called the “learning cycle” (Heiss, Obourn & Hoffman, 1950, in Bybee et al., 2006). The “learning cycle” starts with the phase of “exploration” and gradually proceeds to the phases of “getting experience”, “organizing learning” and “applying new knowledge”. This model does not seem to take into account the possible contribution of peer interactions to individual learning. In fact, it was not until later that social constructivism (Vygotsky, 1978; Driver et al., 1994) influenced the notion of inquiry instruction. A large amount of research has been concerned with the effect of inquiry teaching in the form of “learning cycle” and suggests that this may be promising. In other words, inquiry teaching has been shown to result in better science learning and higher achievement, improved reasoning ability, and more positive attitudes towards science and science learning (Lawson, 1995; Lawson, Abraham & Renner, 1989).