Imagine science classrooms in which:

• The teacher pushes a steel needle through a balloon and the balloon does not burst. The teacher asks the students to find out why the balloon didn't burst.
• Students are dropping objects into jars containing liquids with different densities and recording the time it takes each object to reach the bottom of the jar. They are trying to find out about viscosity.
• Students are using probes connected to a microcomputer to measure the heart rates of students before and after doing five minutes of exercise. They are investigating the effect of exercise on pulse rate.
• Students are reading newspaper articles on the topic "toxic waste dumps" in order to form opinions about a proposed dump being established in their community.

In each case students are actively involved in measuring, recording data, and proposing alternative ideas in order to solve problems, find meaning, and acquire information. In these situations students were involved in the process of inquiry. The greatest challenge to those who advocate inquiry teaching is the threat to the traditional and dominant role of the teacher in secondary education. I am going to discuss inquiry teaching first because of its relationship to the essence of science, but also because of the philosophical implications siding with an inquiry approach implies. By taking a stand in favor of inquiry teaching, the teacher is saying, "I believe students are capable of learning how to learn; they have within their repotoire the abilities as well as the motivation to question, to find out about and seek knowledge; they are persons, and therefore learners in their own right, not incomplete adults." The philosophy of inquiry implies that the teacher views the learner as a thinking, acting, responsible person.

Characteristics of Inquiry

Inquiry is a term used in science teaching that refers to a way of questioning, seeking knowledge or information, or finding out about phenomena. Many science educators have advocated that science teaching should emphasize inquiry. Wayne Welch, a science educator at the University of Minnesota argues the techniques needed for effective science teaching are the same as those used for effective scientific investigation. Thus the methods used by scientists should be an integral part of the methods used in science classrooms. We might think of the method of scientific investigation as the inquiry process. Welch identifies five characteristics of the inquiry process as follows:

• Observation: Science begins with the observation of matter or phenomena. It is is the starting place for inquiry. However, as Welch points out, asking the right questions that will guide the observer is a crucial aspect of the process of observation.
• Measurement: Quantitative description of objects and phenomena is an accepted practice of science, and desirable because of the value in science on precision and accurate description.
• Experimentation: Experiments are designed to test questions and ideas, and as such are the cornerstone of science. Experiments involve questions, observations and measurements.
• Communication: Communicating results to the scientific community and the public is an obligation of the scientist, and is an essential part of the inquiry process. The values of independent thinking and truthfulness in reporting the results of observations and measurements are essential in this regard. As pointed out earlier in the section on the nature of science, the "republic of science" is dependent on the communication of all its members. Generally is this done by articles published in journals, and discussions at professional meetings and seminars.
• Mental Processes: Welch describes several thinking processes that are integral to scientific inquiry: inductive reasoning, formulating hypotheses and theories, deductive reasoning, as well as analogy, extrapolation, synthesis and evaluation. The mental processes of scientific inquiry may also include other processes such as the use of imagination and intuition.

Inquiry teaching is a method of instruction, yet not the only method that secondary science teachers employ. However, because of the philosophical orientation of this book towards an inquiry approach to teaching, I will explore it first, but also highlight three other methods (direct/interactive teaching, cooperative learning, and conceptual change teaching) that contemporary science teachers use in their classrooms.

Inquiry in the Science Classroom.

Secondary science classrooms should involve students in a wide range of inquiry activities. The description of "scientific inquiry" is a general description of the inquiry model of teaching. The inquiry model of teaching presented in this book includes guided and unguided inductive inquiry, deductive inquiry and problem solving. Students engaged in a variety of inquiry activities will be able to apply the general model of inquiry to a wide range of problems. Thus the biology teacher who takes the students outside and asks them to determine where the greatest number of wild flowers grow in a field is engaging the students in guided inquiry. The students would be encouraged to make observations, and measurements of the flowers and the field, perhaps create a map of the field, and then draw conclusions based on these observations. In an earth science class, a teacher has been using inductive inquiry to help students learn about how rocks are formed, and now wants the students to devise their own projects and phenomena to study about rocks. Inductive inqiry is a teacher centered form of instruction.

On the other hand, unguided inductive inquiry is student centered inquiry, in that the student will select the phenomena and the method of investigation, not the teacher. However, this does not mean that the teacher is not involved. The teacher may gather the class together for a brainstorming session to discuss potential phenomena to explore and study, based on the class's work to date. Small teams of students are then organized. The teams discuss the list of topics and phenomena generated in the brainstorming session, and then proceed to devise a project of their own.

In both forms of inductive inquiry, students are engaged in learning about concepts and phenomena by using observations, measurements and data to develop conclusions. We might say the student is moving from specific cases to the general concept. In deductive inquiry the student starts with the big idea, conclusion, or general concept and moves to specific cases. In classroom situations, a physics teacher for instance may want the class to test the principle that light is refracted when it passes from one medium to another. The students perform a laboratory exercise in which they make observations of light as it is passed through water, glycerine, and glass. The lab is desinged to help students confirm the concept. Many of the laboratory activities that are embedded in secondary science textbooks are deductive inquiry exercises. Is deductive inquiry teacher centered or student centered? Why do you think so?

Learning how to solve problems is another form of inquiry teaching. Challenging problems such as these can be investigated by secondary students: How did life originate on the Earth? What will the consequences be if Earth's average temperature continues to rise? How can AIDS be prevented? What is the effect of diet and exercise on the circulatory system? What solid waste products are the most environmentally hazardous? What resources are most critically in short supply? Posing problems such as these brings real world problems into the science classroom and furthers students' appreciation for the process of inquiry. Teachers who use problem solving are providing a perspective for students in which they will propose solutions to problems and make recommendations toward what should be done to change, improve, correct, prevent or better the situation. Involving students in solving problems that are important to the culture and themselves is an important goal of science teaching. Paul DeHart Hurd comments that "a problem-oriented societal context for science courses provides the framework essential for the development of such intellectual skills as problem solving, decision making, and the synthesis of knowledge."

Environments That Foster Inquiry

The classroom environment has psychological, sociological, philosophical and physical dimensions affected by the curriculum, students, teachers, school, community and the nation. Yet in much of the research investigating classroom environments, the teacher's role is often seen as a powerful determinant of the classroom climate. In his book Teaching Science As Inquiry, Steven Rakow points out that behaviors and attitudes of the teacher play an essential role in inquiry teaching, and he identifies the following as characteristic of successful inquiry teachers:

1. They model scientific attitudes.

2. They are creative.

3. They are flexible.

4. They use effective questioning strategies.

5. They are concerned both with thinking skills and with science content.

Yet the overriding characteristic of the environments that foster inquiry is the attitude of the teacher toward the nature of students and the nature of science knowledge. Departing from the traditional role as primary givers of information, the science teacher that "takes-on" the inquiry philosophy is more of a facilitator of learning and manager of the learning environment. The student is placed in the center of the inquiry teacher's approach to teaching, thereby fostering the student's self-concept and development. These teachers bring to the classroom an assortment of approaches designed to meet the needs of the array of students that fill their classrooms. Although inquiry centralizes these teachers' philosophy, they look to other methods of teaching.

Inquiry and the National Science Education Standards.

The National Science Education Standards place science inquiry at the top of the list of standards. In this view, science inquiry goes beyond the teaching of science process skills (e.g. observing, classifying, inferring, etc.) and requires students to integrate process and science content to develop an understanding of science.