APPLICATION OF INQUIRY-BASED METHODOLOGIES IN SCIENCE TEACHING AND LEARNING

Science education can be greatly improved if active methodologies such as the inquiry-based approach are used. Instead of adopting a passive attitude typical of the classic lecture methodology, students are expected to develop their thinking abilities, collect and analyze data, propose and test hypothesis, discuss their results and adopt an overall active attitude in class. Successful science education includes developing a basic working knowledge of the most important concepts and processes of science. But it also involves improving creative thinking, critical thinking and stimulating curiosity and interest to ask questions and look for their answers in a systematic way. The motivated teacher who wants to incorporate these active methodologies in the classroom often finds a wide gap between the methodologies themselves, that can be found and are well described in various articles and books, and their application in the daily planning of the class activities. In this paper, an effort has been made to offer advice coming from different authors, as to how to implement inquiry-based methodologies in the science classroom.