Abstract
The exploration process leading to the understanding of physical phenomena, such as light and its interaction with matter, raises great interest and curiosity in children. However, in most primary schools, children rarely have the opportunity to conduct science activities in which they can engage in an enquiry process even if by the action of the teacher. In this context, we have organised several in-service teacher training courses and carried out several pedagogic interventions in Portuguese primary schools, with the aim of promoting inquiry- based science education. This article describes one of those projects, developed with a class of the third grade, which explored the curricular topic “Light Experiments”. Various activities were planned and implemented, during a total of ten hours spread over five lessons. The specific objectives of this paper are: to illustrate and analyse the teaching and learning process promoted in the classroom during the exploration of one of these lessons, and to assess children's learning three weeks after the lessons. The results suggest that children made significant learning which persisted. We conclude discussing some processes that stimulated children’ learning, including the importance of teacher questioning in scaffolding children's learning and some didactic implications for teacher training.
Highlights
Very early on, children manifest a natural curiosity and interest in knowing and making sense of the world that surrounds them
In most primary schools, children rarely have the opportunity to conduct science activities in which they can engage in an enquiry process even if by the action of the teacher
We conclude discussing some processes that stimulated children’ learning, including the importance of teacher questioning in scaffolding children's learning and some didactic implications for teacher training
Summary
Children manifest a natural curiosity and interest in knowing and making sense of the world that surrounds them. The science teaching should take advantage and enhance these natural qualities of children, as they constitute the necessary support for active and meaningful learning in the classroom [1, 2, 3]. The goal is to “educate” the children’s natural curiosity in order to develop more systematic, deeper and autonomous thinking patterns [4]; stimulate them to pose questions and look for possible answers for what they do and see; enable them to devise ways to test their ideas and thought strategies; to share and discuss their own theories and explanations with others [5, 2]. The US National Science Education Standards were developed by the National Research Council to “promote a scientifically literate citizens”. These Standards frequently encourage the use of inquiry in science classrooms, defining it as “... These Standards frequently encourage the use of inquiry in science classrooms, defining it as “... a multifaceted activity that involves making observations; posing questions; examining books and other sources of information to see what is already known; planning
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