Comparative Perspectives on Inquiry-Based Science Education

The National Science Education Standards as well as the 2061 project reaffirm the conviction that inquiry is central to the achievement of scientific literacy. The National Science Education Standards use the term inquiry in two ways: (1) inquiry as content understanding, in which students have opportunities to construct concepts, patterns, and to create meaning about an idea in order to explain what they experience and (2) inquiry in terms of skills and abilities. Under the category of abilities or skills, Bybee includes identifying and posing scientifically oriented questions, forming hypotheses, designing and conducting scientific investigations, formulating and revising scientific explanations, and communicating and defending scientific arguments. It is suggested that many of these abilities and skills are in alignment with those that characterize inquiry-type laboratory work, an activity that puts the student in the center of the learning process. Thus, the following chapter will mainly deal with the inquiry-based science education in the laboratory.