ABSTRACT

This chapter considers how children’s ideas are developed through scientific inquiry and the factors and conditions that are important in developing children’s understanding in science. In the first part examples from Chapter 3 are used to suggest a framework, or model, of how different parts of classroom activities come together to help children develop their understanding through inquiry. In the context of cross-curricular topics it is particularly important that the potential for developing scientific understanding is recognized and exploited. The model is based on the observation that learners bring ideas from earlier experiences to try to make sense of new experiences or answer new questions. Some of these will be the naïve or non-scientific ideas exemplified in Chapter 5. The model identifies the role of inquiry skills in helping children to develop more scientific ideas and to move from small ideas towards ‘bigger’ ideas. We also discuss how inquiry in science differs from inquiry in other subjects and the form it takes, depending on the type of question that sparks inquiry.