Abstract
This contribution belongs to a larger empirical study that focuses on issues related to the implementation of inquiry-based learning and formative assessment in science and mathematics education, while it also refers to the issue of STEM education. Here, we discuss the two topics from the perspective of professional preparation of primary school teachers. We employ an educational tool called Concept Cartoons and perceive it as a common diagnostic tool for investigating modes of reasoning about general statements in arithmetic, geometry and biology. The presented qualitative exploratory empirical study maps and codes various kinds of reasoning that can be identified with the tool and investigates possibilities of a joint coding procedure. As a result, it provides a conversion table between various modes of reasoning in the three subject domains. The arisen code categories cover the field of generic examples, including the initial stages so that they can be used for scaffolding the process of learning the foundations of deductive reasoning. The joint approach to reasoning in mathematics and biology shows how argumentation and formative assessment can be understood equally and developed simultaneously in both school subjects. It helps us to see how the two school subjects can be integrated didactically.
Highlights
In recent decades, inquiry-based teaching and formative assessment have belonged among educational frameworks that have been discussed in relation to possible enhancement of the form and outcomes of teaching practices
Our study aims to answer two research questions, the first one serving as preparatory for the second one: RQ1: What kinds of reasoning about general statements in biology and mathematics can be observed in future primary school teachers when using Concept Cartoons as a diagnostic instrument?
Regarding the first research question As an answer to the first research question, “What kinds of reasoning about general statements in biology and mathematics can be observed in future primary school teachers when using Concept Cartoons as a diagnostic instrument?” we may state that the results themselves are promising from the perspective of participants’ knowledge as well as from the perspective of applicability of Concept Cartoons as a diagnostic instrument
Summary
Inquiry-based teaching and formative assessment have belonged among educational frameworks that have been discussed in relation to possible enhancement of the form and outcomes of teaching practices. Due to some particular timing of the initial recent interest in inquiry-based pedagogy (the first US and European curricular documents involving inquiry referred only to the school subject of science: National Research Council, 1996; Rocard et al, 2007), the inquiry has often been perceived solely in relation to science teaching and learning. We present an approach that goes beyond the initial framework of science education and perceives inquiry in a comparable manner both in science and mathematics school subjects.
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