Inquiry in Science and Classrooms

Traditional approach to learning science was more focused on mastery of content and not enough on science as a way of thinking and an attitude of mind. John Dewey emphasized in 1909 a different perspective on science instruction.  Science is more than body of knowledge to be learned, there is a process or method to be learned.  During the 1950s and 1960s educator Joseph Schwab was an influential voice in establishing the view of science education.  In his view, teachers should present science as inquiry and that students should use inquiry to learn science subject matter. He urged the teachers to first have students work in laboratory before they introduce them to the formal explanations of scientific concepts. He proposed three different approaches to teachers in the science instruction in laboratory.  The most open approach, students ask questions, gather evidence, and propose scientific explanations based on their own investigation.
The National Science Education Standards ( NSES) are a set of guidelines for the science education established by National Research Council in 1996. The content of these standards is based on constructivist learning theory, distinguished by emphasis on building on what child already knows and understands.
Five essential features of inquiry teaching and learning are:
1. Learners are engaged by scientifically  oriented questions.  Those are the questions that are useful for the purpose of empirical investigation and lead to gathering and using data to develop explanations for scientific phenomena.  Children will pose questions that are relevant and lead  to experience based investigations of scientific concepts.
2. Learners give priority to evidence, which allows them to develop and evaluate explanations of scientific oriented questions. Students actually learn to make explanations of phenomena based on evidence obtained from observations and measurements and not on myths, personal beliefs, religious values, or superstition.
3. Learners formulate explanations from evidence to address scientifically oriented questions.
Scientific explanations are based on reason. They establish relationship between evidence and logical argument. Explanations must be consistent with experimental and observational evidence about nature.
4. Learners evaluate their explanations taking into account alternative explanations, particularly those reflecting scientific understanding. Students engage in dialogues, compare results, or check their results proposed by the teacher or instructional materials.
5. Learners communicate and justify their proposed explanations. Students share their explanations, provide others the opportunity to ask questions, examine evidence,  identify faulty reasoning and suggest alternative explanations if the evidence does not support their explanations.

These features of inquiry help introduce students to important aspects of science and at the same time help them develop deeper knowledge of particular science concepts and processes.

How would I try to apply inquiry as a method of teaching in science classroom?
As a teacher I should build on my students natural curiosity. I would ask students questions that lead them to critical thinking and investigation.  I would encourage students to ask questions, that lead them to activities that generate more questions about particular scientific phenomena. Students could plan and carry out the learning activities in order to find explanations to their questions. They would record information, sort it out and decide what is important.  Their observations and measurements they would be able to record  in journals, reports, graphs. They would listen, speak and read about learning activities with their peers. They could confer about their observations with classmates and me.  Students would give explanations of phenomena they were investigating based on their previous knowledge and the evidence they gathered from experiments. They could also gather information from other sources  ( organizations outside school, books, magazines, teacher, parents and other professionals). Groups of students would share their explanations  and try to distinguish between those that  support observations and evidence.  In the process of reevaluation of these explanation students would verify the connections they made between evidence, their previous scientific knowledge and the proposed explanations. As for the assessment I would apply ongoing assessment.  Once students begin to explore questions I would observe them during the activities, examine aspects of their work.  I would make an effort to judge each student's progress from where he/she started to where he/she have progressed.