CONSTRUCTIVIST TEACHING STRATEGIES

PART A: "INQUIRY" APPROACHES TO TEACHING SCIENCE Definition of "inquiry" The essence of the inquiry approach is to teach pupils to handle situations Which they encounter when dealing with the physical world by using Techniques, which are applied by, research scientists. Inquiry means that Teachers design situations so that pupils are caused to employ procedures Research scientists use to recognise problems, to ask questions, to apply Investigational procedures, and to provide consistent descriptions, Predictions, and …

…process of "discovery" they actually experience in class. It is worth commenting that most science teachers who use the term "discovery" with respect to a teaching approach could NOT recount the professional knowledge embedded in the description of discovery above, or debate the issues and conflicts in the points of view in the readings provided. It follows then, that most science teachers who talk about "discovery" literally do not know what they are talking about.