The decline of publics' attitude towards science and low enrolment in science-related studies in the developed countries has been debated among educators and politicians for some time, because negative trends threaten future development and the already achieved standards of living in the affected countries.
Experts agree that the established methods of teaching science are partly to blame for the situation; however, they also agree that science education can also provide solutions. EC-founded research states, that inquiry-based science education (IBSE) may be the pedagogy for the future and the tool to reverse negative trends in attitudes towards science and science education. Research in the USA confirmed those findings.
EC funded two large scale research, development and dissemination projects within FP6 and FP7, both aimed to implement IBSE in Europe. In both The Pollen Project and The Fibonacci Project Slovenia was actively participating, with University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Education as a partner institution. My role as a national coordinator of both projects was to plan, coordinate, and implement a system of continuous professional development courses (CPD) for teachers, preparation of didactics materials for teachers and pupils, design toolkit boxes for pupils' experiments in the classrooms, and organizing a network of resource centres in Ljubljana, Kamnik and Kranj. Resource centres, which lend the boxes with experimental equipment for classroom use are still operating with the support of local municipalities.
Altogether 19 IBSE topics were prepared by the expert team from the Faculty of Education. Special attention was devoted to language use and development, as communicating skills are crucial in science. My personal efforts were also devoted to developing didactic materials for guiding inquiry in the classroom.
This thesis consists of detailed didactic commentary for 5 topics, adjusted to use in grades 1 to 5 –one for each grade. I also prepared 5 questionnaires to survey improvement in pupils’ knowledge and compare experimental groups’ achievements which was taught by IBSE approach, with the control group’s achievements with standard teaching practices results.
Evaluation of pre- and post-test results comparison showed statistically important improvement in pupils’ skills and knowledge. When compared to the control groups’ results, experimental group was equal or slightly better. When IBSE specific skills were compared, experimental group tended to prevail with older pupils, but no significant differences were detected in grades 1 and 2.
Pupils’ and teachers’ attitudes towards science were also evaluated after two years of involvement in IBSE within the Pollen project. IBSE failed to reverse negative trends in attitudes with pupils, but it succeeded to mitigate the negative effect. Decline in attitudes towards science was less severe than in attitude towards school in general.
Involvement in the project and IBSE had very positive effect on teachers’ attitudes towards science, their appreciation of the role of science in society and their confidence in teaching science.
This work is a contribution to improvement of the school practice in Slovenia by CPD on IBSE for teachers, didactic materials for teachers and pupils, establishing resource centres with experimental tools for classroom use and quantitative study of the effect of IBSE in Slovenia.
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