Developing a tool for evaluating Inquiry-Based Science Education (IBSE) in Europe: building a bridge between research and practice - Borda Carulla, Susana
In the framework of the Fibonacci Project, a team of six partners from different European countries (France, Greece, Luxemburg, Slovakia, Sweden, and United Kingdom), reflected on the following question: how does scientific inquiry in natural sciences translate into observable classroom practices? In order to better define the essence of inquiry-based science teaching and learning practices, the team created a common European Inquiry-Based Science Education (IBSE) evaluation instrument. Building an evaluation instrument means, indeed, passing from theoretical inquiry guidelines to concrete, observable, assessable practices in the classroom context. The process of making this instrument involved researchers in science education, science teacher trainers, science teachers, and students from the above mentioned countries, either directly or indirectly. The activities leading to the making of the instrument included 1) a review of bibliography on IBSE and on class observation instruments; 2) regular working meetings among the team members; 3) three different tests in at least five different classes in each country involved, at three different stages of development of the instrument. In this paper I presented the main issues that came up throughout the process of building the instrument and how the team tackled them: what are the essential, determinant components of inquiry in terms of teaching and learning practices, regardless of contextual factors or pupils’ age, which distinguish it from other good practices in science education? What are the advantages and disadvantages of using evaluation scales in this context? Does the fact that evaluation is carried out for summative or formative purposes have an effect on the structure or presentation of the instrument? Does the user of the instrument (teacher or teacher trainer) have an effect on the structure or presentation of the instrument)? This led us to argue that not only the tool as a finished product, but also the process of building it, was a way to ensure a fruitful back-and-forth dialogue between research on inquiry-based science education and actual classroom practice. The instrument itself came to be conceived by the team as a formative tool for triggering reflection among the different actors within the educational system, more than as a finished product.
Keywords: conferencePaper; EVALUATION; Inquiry-Based Science Education (IBSE); class observation; practice; research