Students' Ways of Using Prior Experience in Inquiry Based Science Education – the case of NTA

• Inquiry has been identified as a 'key-approach' and recommended as an important pedagogy to improve primary science education in Europe. Inquiry is also a key component in the US national science education standards. In Sweden, inquiry pedagogy in primary science has been introduced through a large curriculum program called NTA (Science and Technology for all). The aim of this paper is to shed light on what inquiry based science education (IBSE) practices are emerging in Swedish primary schools through the introduction of the NTA-program and what activities students are engaging in, in these practices. In particular we focus on ways of working with 'what is already known' which is held to be a central aspect to IBSE in e.g. the definition of inquiry in the US national science education standards. The research questions investigated are: In what actions do students engage in when working with ‘what is already known’ in IBSE practice? How is 'what is already known' acted with in practice? Data was collected, during a 10-week-period using video- and audiotape recordings of classroom work, in two 6th grade classes where teachers and students worked with an NTA-unit called 'the Chemistry of food'. Our analysis is conceptualized within a cultural-historical activity-theoretical perspective. Results show that students participate in three different actions: A) separation of tasks, B) playing the lottery and C) challenging test results with ‘what is already known’. These different actions involve different types of use of 'what is already known' , and the actions correspond to, and acquire meaning in relation to, different goals. Common to the different ways of working is that we can discern two different types of ‘what is already known’: (1) referring to facts, and (2) making use of ideas about science culture.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Utbildningsvetenskap -- Didaktik (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Educational Sciences -- Didactics (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Inquiry based science education (IBSE)

prior experience

boundary objects

hybrid activity

third space

NTA

Subject didactics

Ämnesdidaktik

naturvetenskapsämnenas didaktik

Science Education

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

kon (ämneskategori)