IBSE Final

Chapter 4 Teaching Science as Inquiry

tHE tEACHING OF SCIENCE: 21 st-CENTURY PERSPECTIVES 85

Essential Feature 5: Learners Communicate and Justify Their Proposed Explanations.

Scientists communicate their explanations in such a way that their results can

be reproduced. This requires clear articulation of the question, procedures,

evidence, and proposed explanation, as well as a review of alternative expla-

nations. It provides for further skeptical review and the opportunity for other

scientists to use the explanation in working on new questions.

Having students share their explanations provides other students and

teachers the opportunity to ask questions, examine evidence, identify faulty

reasoning, point out statements that go beyond the evidence, and suggest

alternative explanations for the same observations. Sharing explanations can

bring into question or fortify the connections students have made among the

evidence, existing scientific knowledge, and their proposed explanations. As

a result, students can resolve contradictions and solidify an empirically based

argument.

Variations of Inquiry in Science Classrooms

One of the unfortunate misconceptions about teaching science as inquiry is that

all inquiry must originate with a student’s question. In the extreme, this position

does not allow for other origins for questions, such as the science teacher asking

a question, conducting a demonstration, or engaging students in an activity.

Inquiry and the National Science Education Standards (NRC 2000) presents a view

of classroom inquiry that is not this either/or position. Rather, the view is one of

a continuum and variations that may range from less to more self-direction by

students and more to less direction by teachers, materials, or other sources. Table

4.2 (p. 86) uses the essential features of inquiry and presents this continuum.