New Perspectives in Science Education

Despite well-documented benefits for conceptual understanding and scientific reasoning [1, 2], access to laboratory facilities remains highly uneven across Italian schools, constraining opportunities for hands-on experimental learning. This paper presents a three-level instructional framework for chemistry education developed within a teacher professional development course focused on experimental science using low-cost and readily available materials.

The framework was designed to reflect the structure of the Italian education system and to support progressive conceptual development across three educational stages: lower secondary school (“Introductory level”), the first two years of upper secondary school (“Intermediate level”), and the final three years of upper secondary school (“Advanced level”). Grounded in principles of Inquiry-Based Science Education (IBSE) [3, 4], the framework enables teachers to implement inquiry-based activities using materials that are available in most schools. Furthermore, the use of everyday materials is consistent with context-based approaches that seek to connect scientific concepts with students' lived experiences [5, 6]. By integrating familiar phenomena with progressively deeper scientific explanations, the model supports coherent learning progressions in which students revisit core chemical concepts with increasing depth and formal rigor across the three educational stages [7].

Keywords: Chemistry Education, Inquiry-Based Science Education, Low-Cost Experiments, STEM Education

References:

[1] Hofstein, A., & Lunetta, V. N. (2004). The laboratory in science education: Foundations for the twenty-first century. Science Education, 88(1), 28-54.

[2] National Research Council. (2000). Inquiry and the National Science Education Standards. National Academies Press.

[3] Bybee, R. W. (2006). Scientific Inquiry and Science Teaching. In L. B. Flick, & N. G. Lederman (Eds.), Scientific Inquiry and Nature of Science: Implications for Teaching, Learning and Teacher Education (pp. 1-14). Dordrecht: Springer.

[4] Minner, D. D., Levy, A. J., & Century, J. (2010). Inquiry-based science instruction: What is it and does it matter? Results from a research synthesis years 1984 to 2002. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 47(4), 474-496.

[5] Gilbert, J. K. (2006). On the Nature of “Context” in Chemical Education. International Journal of Science Education, 28(9), 957–976.

[6] Bennett, J., Lubben, F., & Hogarth, S. (2007). Bringing science to life: A synthesis of the research evidence on the effects of context-based and STS approaches to science teaching. Science Education, 91(3), 347–370.

[7] Duschl, R., Maeng, S., & Sezen, A. (2011). Learning progressions and teaching sequences: A review and analysis. Studies in Science Education, 47(2), 123-182.