New Perspectives in Science Education

Over the past few years the students’ decline of interest for scientific studies and careers has led several countries to account the achievement of the standards of learning as the most important priority.

A key factor for improvement could be the dissemination at school of new instructional models such as Inquiry-based Science Education (IBSE), focused on active learning. Inquiry-based learning comes from constructivist theories. It is an instructional model that centers learning on addressing a particular problem or answering a central question. This means that students learn to construct their own understanding through the reflection on their experiences, based on hands-on activities, focusing on both the contents and the processes of science.

This study focuses on analyzing high school students‘ perceptions about the implementation of IBSE approach in classroom, with the objective to investigate the impact of IBSE, compared to the traditional approach. The preliminary part of the study is addressed to validate a questionnaire which is developed with the collaboration of experts in statistics. The validated questionnaire is then used in a broader survey, now in progress, focused to measure and compare the effects of IBSE and traditional instructions on students’ school achievement.

The new perspective of this study, compared to previous studies, is that the questionnaire has been built in order to elucidate key aspects of both inquiry-based and traditional instructions, in a way that students can compare the two different approaches.

The study involves 87 participants from two high schools. All the participants are students whose teachers took part in the SID (Scientiam Inquirendo Discere) Programme. This programme is a systemic model for IBSE implementation in Italy that provides teacher professional development by their participation to training courses, to supporting actions in presence and on line and by the development of didactic resources.

Although the study is in progress, it already showed students’ perceptions, assessment of motivation and engagement, bringing out strengths and weaknesses of the two approaches. Statistical analysis in data processing was used for a descriptive study. In particular, the t-test and p-value analysis indicated that 26 out of the 36 survey items received statistically different answers. Results showed that in general students gave positive evaluations to their experience with IBSE activities, considered them a successful teaching/learning process, recognizing the value of good practices. These results are more evident among female students, among students from higher socio-cultural level, as well as among those scoring good marks On the other hand, students did not perceive to achieve a deeper knowledge by IBSE than by the traditional learning and they did not consider IBSE an effective approach for their future careers.