I’ve just been lucky enough to spend the weekend in sunny Cyprus as part of the S-TEAM project – not the sort of opportunity which normally arises for us teachers! S-TEAM stands for Science Teaching Advanced Methods (a bit clunky I know) and is funded by the EU. It’s a vast project which involves institutions across Europe and is aiming to produce materials which can be used to support Science teachers to develop their use of inquiry based teaching methods in Science. My role in the project is as a member of the project’s reference group. Exactly what this entails is still developing, but it basically involves looking at the outcomes from the project and commenting on these from the perspective of a teacher. I’m also able to add a slightly different perspective this year as someone who develops and delivers CPD.

The project has just finished the first of its three years, and although I knew it was a big project – I only really began to appreciate just how enormous it is this weekend. There is going to be a vast amount of materials arising from the project which could be used by teachers, teacher educators in Universities and all those many professionals across Europe who offer CPD to in-service teachers. It’s clearly going to be a major challenge for the project to tie all of this together in a form which is manageable and appropriate.

One of the most fascinating discussions which occurred a lot over the weekend was just what exactly inquiry is. It was surprising to me that this is a conversation which is still taking place at this stage at the project, but it would appear that the common understanding is developing as the project progresses. For me, I do not think it appropriate to try to turn classrooms into scientific laboratories. We cannot convert our teaching methods wholesale to incorporate scientific inquiry as would take place in that context. We have curricula to cover, and in most countries there’s no escaping that fact. We also aren’t in the business of ‘doing science’ – we’re in the business of learning. With this in mind I’ve come to the conclusion that for me the ideal is to develop increased inquiry based learning in Science as opposed to inquiry based science teaching (which is often seen summarised as IBST). This then broadens the concept beyond science alone and becomes very equivalent to what Dan Meyer is putting forward in this fantastic talk on his approach to teaching Maths.

This would also for me be a fantastic form active learning. What could be more ‘brains on’ than the pupils having an inquiry approach to their learning? So as Dan suggests, we shouldn’t start a problem or piece of learning with all the information required laid on and in an artificial setting. We should start with a question, and progress from there. In Science, we might need to carry out some practical work to generate some of the information we need to answer the question – but not always. With this in mind, I feel we need to see inquiry as more than practical work. The reverse of this is true also. Not all practical work is inquiry – even so called investigations. I wonder how many Standard Investigations carried out by pupils throughout the country could really be considered to be inquiry based learning. Who originated the question? Who controls the investigation? Who designs the investigation? Who is interested in the outcome of the investigation? How do the results contribute to the pupils’ curiosity? I know how I would evaluate my own attempts at this in the past.

So…how can I alter my teaching to allow for more inquiry based learning? And how can I improve any investigations I have to deliver to ensure they’re used more effectively? I’m looking forward to see what the materials produced by S-TEAM can do to support me with these questions…watch this space.