In this study the authors shall endeavour to find answers to how the development of scientific competencies can be taught to primary school children and which methods can be adopted in order to make science learning meaningful according to an inquiry-based approach in a primary school setting. In section one, the methodology aims at active and meaningful learning, and at developing critical thinking and collaborative skills. The teaching methodology based on inquiry will be highlighted showing how this approach is stimulating and motivating for students, enabling them to apply their research skills, to build on meaning and to acquire scientific knowledge through practical experience. In section two, a programme followed by a third grade class will be described. The learning of science actively involves the students in its different stages - formulating the research questions, planning, and carrying out the research to answer the question all are stimulating activities. The following is a simple example of the 5E methodology, an approach based on inquiry.
“If I thought of a future, I dreamt of one day founding a school in which young people could learn without boredom, and would be stimulated to pose problems and discuss them; a school in which no unwanted answers to unasked questions would have to be listened to,” (Karl Popper,Unended Quest, p.40.)
TopIntroduction
Competence in science refers to the ability and willingness to explain the natural world by making use of the body of knowledge and methodology employed, including observation and experimentation, in order to identify questions and to draw evidence-based conclusions. Competences in technology and engineering are applications of that knowledge and methodology in response to perceived human wants or needs. Competence in science, technology and engineering involves an understanding of the changes caused by human activity and responsibility as an individual citizen. (The Council of the European Union, 2018, p.9)
To be able to analyze, apply scientific thought, understand the interaction between nature and the world created by man, to maintain a critical approach regarding the validity of information are all competences necessary to each one of us in this world today. (European Commission, 2022, p.3)
Scientific disciplines, therefore, facilitate the development of critical and creative thinking providing those competences necessary to become responsible and active citizens in a society in which science and technology play a role. Thus, scientific literacy is regarded as a precise key in PISA1 2015, as “as the ability of an individual to approach types of scientific questions with ideas that concern science as a citizen capable of reflection”. For this reason, the teaching of science is compulsory in schools in many European countries as a supplementary subject for at least part of primary education.2
However, in spite of the emphasis given to scientific education, international research demonstrates a rather critical reality:
- •
“On average across OECD countries, 78% of students attained Level 2 or higher in science. At a minimum, these students can recognize the correct explanation for familiar scientific phenomena and can use such knowledge to identify, in simple cases, whether a conclusion is valid based on the data provided.
- •
On average across OECD countries, 6.8% of students were top performers in science in 2018, meaning that they were proficient at Level 5 or 6” (OECD, 2019, p.112)
Italian students, in particular, have achieved an average science result below the average OECD in PISA testing (Italy 468 vs OECD 489) while the percentage of fifteen year olds does not reach the basic level of 29,9% (18,2% level 1A; 6,6% level 1B; 1,1% below level 1B).
At Level 1A, students can use common content and procedural knowledge to recognize or identify explanations of simple scientific phenomena. With support, they can undertake structured scientific enquiries with no more than two variables. They can identify simple causal or correlational relationships and interpret graphical and visual data that require a low level of cognitive ability.
At Level 1B, students can use common content knowledge to recognize aspects of simple scientific phenomena. They can identify simple patterns in data, recognize basic scientific terms and follow explicit instructions to carry out a scientific procedure. (p.117)
These results should lead to a close reflection of the quality of scientific education and the need to renew teaching methods beginning right from the Primary School. Teachers at this scholastic level are in fact responsible: at the initial stage, the teaching methodology based on IBSE was analyzed. The approach revealed stimulating and motivating results for the students in that they were able to apply research skills, acquire meaning and scientific knowledge through tangible experience. At the Primary School Level Grade Three, an example of the IBSE method was introduced in the second stage.